Central STL News

Masyn Winn has become the youngest player in St. Louis Cardinals history to win a Gold Glove Award. At 23 years and 191 days old at the end of the season, Winn surpassed Ken Reitz, who was previously the youngest Cardinal to earn this honor in 1975.

Winn’s achievement makes him only the fifth-youngest shortstop to win a Gold Glove, following Anthony Volpe, Alan Trammell, Francisco Lindor, and Ezequiel Tovar. He is also now part of an exclusive group of Cardinals shortstops who have won the award: Édgar Rentería, Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, and Dal Maxvill.

Nolan Arenado, a ten-time Gold Glove winner, had predicted that it would be disappointing if Winn did not secure several defensive awards over his career. Paul Goldschmidt shared similar expectations for Winn’s future.

During the 2025 season, Winn played in 129 games (127 starts) but missed time due to a meniscus tear that required surgery late in September. Despite this setback, he committed just three errors in 501 total chances at shortstop—matching totals achieved by Cal Ripken Jr. in 1990 and Omar Vizquel in 2000 for fewest errors by an MLB shortstop.

Reflecting on his season during September, Winn said: “It's definitely a great season, but I think it goes back to the work we put in Spring Training and just throughout the year and the attention to detail. Between [Minor League instructor] Jose Oquendo and [infield coach] Stubby [Clapp], they let me know that defense was something I'm going to have to be great at, and something I take pride in. So this season was huge for me by taking a step. It was a big step for me to drop my errors, which I expected of myself.”

Winn became only the eighth shortstop ever to win a Gold Glove while playing fewer than 1,110 innings defensively—a list that includes Ozzie Smith and Alan Trammell.

Arenado commented on Winn’s performance: “In 2014, I played 110 games and won a Gold Glove. He played [129] games and he’s by far the best fielding shortstop in the National League. If I can do it in 110, there’s no reason why he doesn’t deserve it in 120-something games. His defense has been unbelievable. He’s just so steady and it’s unbelievable to watch him.”

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol praised Winn as well: “He’s the best shortstop in the game.”

For much of the season, Winn led Major League Baseball in outs above average before missing time due to injury; he finished tied with Ke’Bryan Hayes and Ceddanne Rafaela at 21 outs above average—behind Pete Crow-Armstrong (24) and Bobby Witt Jr. (24), all of whom also won Gold Gloves this year.

Victor Scott II, another Cardinals rookie finalist for a Gold Glove Award as center fielder with third-most outs above average among MLB outfielders (17), lost out on winning his category.

Winn had previously been a finalist for last year’s award but lost out after making more errors than Colorado's Ezequiel Tovar; reducing those mistakes became one of his main goals for this season.

“That's pretty cool,” said Winn about matching Ripken Jr.'s and Vizquel's error totals. “I'm assuming those guys played a couple more games than I did, but to be able to go out there and be consistent that's all I've been asking for of myself. I wanted to show these guys what I could do in terms of being consistent all season.”