ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Cardinals set an MLB record with five Gold Glove awards in a single season. The winners were announced Sunday night on the Rawlings Gold Glove awards show.
Three infielders and two outfielders took home Gold Gloves Sunday night, the most for a single team in a single season since the awards were first handed out in 1957. The Cardinals winners were:
- First baseman Paul Goldschmidt — fourth of his career
- Second baseman Tommy Edman — first of his career
- Third baseman Nolan Arenado — ninth of his career
- Left fielder Tyler O'Neill — second of his career
- Center fielder Harrison Bader — first of his career
The Gold Glove awards honor the best defenders at each position in each league. According to Major League Baseball, big league managers and coaches, voting only within their league and unable to vote for players on their own teams, account for 75 percent of the selection process. The other 25 percent goes to the sabermetrics community.
Goldschmidt won his first Gold Glove since 2017. Cardinals Hall of Famer Keith Hernandez has the record for first basemen with 11 wins.
Arenado continued his historic run by claiming his ninth consecutive NL Gold Glove at third base. That tied Phillies legend and Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt for most consecutive NL Gold Gloves by a third baseman. Brooks Robinson won 16 in a row in the American League.
The Cardinals have now won the NL Gold Glove at second base three years in a row, as Edman took the crown from his old teammate, Kolten Wong.
The last time the Cardinals had three Gold Glove winners across the infield was 2002 when Fernando Vina, Scott Rolen and Edgar Renteria took home trophies.
2021 was the first year two Cardinals have won Gold Glove awards. O'Neill is the first Cardinals outfielder to win two in a row since Jim Edmonds won five consecutive awards from 2000 to 2004.
The Cardinal had won four Gold Gloves three times in their history, most recently in 2003 when Mike Matheny, Edgar Renteria, Rolen and Jim Edmonds were the winners. They also won four Gold Gloves in 2002 and in 1963.
The Cardinals had six nominations entering the night. Catcher Yadier Molina was the only finalist to come up empty-handed in 2021. He was going for his 10th career Gold Glove.
The five Gold Gloves came in a season when the Cardinals easily ranked as the best defensive team in the National League. According to the defensive runs saved statistic compiled by the Fielding Bible, the Cardinals defense saved 81 runs in 2021, 20 more than the next best teams in the NL, the Milwaukee Brewers and Colorado Rockies, who each saved 61 runs.
