Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - GOLDEN: Masyn Winn's ELITE Defense Earns Cardinals Their 100th Gold Glove Honor

Starting point is 00:00:00 Mason Wind strikes gold and makes history in the process. This is Locked on Cardinals. You are Locked on Cardinals. Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey there, Cardinals fans. I'm Jady Hafer, a former national radio sports anchor, born and raised in the St. Louis area,

Starting point is 00:00:26 Lifetime Cardinals fan. And I'm your host for Lockedon Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, covering your team every day. The Bridgeton area is, where I grew up in St. Louis, the case you are wondering, Paddville High School, go Pirates.

Starting point is 00:00:39 Thank you to our everydayers for being a part of this show and being with us throughout the season and now into the off season for those of you who are new. Welcome aboard. Hope you enjoy the content. This is a show serving Cardle Nation and giving you all the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode brought to you by GameTime.

Starting point is 00:00:56 Download the GameTime app, create an account. Use the code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Today's episode, we are going to focus on gold. We like gold, our golden boys and the organization. After last night's announcement, that shortstop Mason win is now a gold glove winner. Congratulations, Mason. And I'll be honest. As much as I knew that Mason was deserving, I was definitely concerned that he was going to lose. That because of the knee injury, they cut things short and because of the adoration that everyone seems to have for Dodgers shortstop mooky bets.

Starting point is 00:01:37 Everybody loves them, unless you don't like the Dodgers. Then you don't love them so much. But, you know, they're good guy, good family guy. He's really good at everything. The fact that he changed positions, he's been a gold glover in the outfield, comes into shortstop plays as good as he did. He was on the defending champion Dodgers, now back-to-back champion Dodgers.

Starting point is 00:01:57 I definitely thought they were going to side with mooky bets on this one. I just did. I thought Mason was going to get screwed. And I thought Mookie was going to take it. So thrilled to hear last night that Mason won't got the credit that he deserved for what was a tremendous defensive season, despite the knee injury that cut his year short and likely attributed to his numbers not being quite as good as maybe they were going to be. You know, not that his numbers were bad, but, you know, his trajectory was that they were going to be even better than what he finished at. So it could have been better than what he already was. And in doing so, he made a little bit of hit.

Starting point is 00:02:34 in case you're unaware, as well as winning the gold glove, becomes the youngest winner of the award in the history of the St. Louis Cardinals. Now think about that for a second. Out of all, the gold glove winners over the years for the Cardinals, they've won a bunch. The franchise boasts the most gold glove winners in the history of the sport by a long shot. Mason win has set the record for the youngest player to win it. That's incredible.

Starting point is 00:03:00 That's incredible. Per John Denton, in 23 years, 190, 91 days at seasons in. When is the franchise's youngest gold glove winner, edging out third baseman Ken Reitz, who was 24 years and 96 days in 1975 when he won his?

Starting point is 00:03:16 Also, when is the fifth young and shortstop to win the award behind Anthony Volpe for the Yankees in 2023, Alan Trammell of the Tigers in 1980, Francisco Lindor of Cleveland in 2016, and last year, Ezekiel Tovar for the Rockies in 2024.

Starting point is 00:03:32 He also pushes the Cardinals to the century mark in gold glove winners, becoming the 100th gold glove winner in in Cardinals history. He joins Edgar Rinterea, who won in 2002 and Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, from 82 to 92, and Dowell Maxville in 1968 is the only Cardinal shortstops to win the award. It's also the first gold glove winner for the Cardinals since 2022, when both Nolan Aronado and Brendan Donovan won. Now, in case you missed the episode where we covered all of the great that was Mason wins stats-wise here and why he was nominated in 2025. Let's go through them quickly again, plus 21 outs above average, plus two defensive runs

Starting point is 00:04:15 saved, only made three errors in 501 total chances, which tied the totals of Cal Ripkin Jr. in 1990 and Omar Biskel in 2000 is the fewest by an MLB shortstop. Better than Ozzie Smith. I know, wild, right? So it's not like we're talking about a guy who just kind of had a better season than the other guys who were nominated this year and he wasn't deserving. No, he was in rare air this year with what he was doing defensively. 21 outs above average were the third highest total among all players. Only fellow shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. of the Royals in 24 and Redsler basement

Starting point is 00:04:50 Key Brian Hayes in Boston, Saddam and Rafael at 22 had better numbers. Now granted, he did get smoked by Mookie Betts and defensive runs saved who finished at a plus 17. Mason, was it two. Nick Allen of the Braves, who was the other finalist, was a plus 12. But the plus two from Mason, although it sounds low, is actually the seventh highest total among all shortstops. So it's not like he was some slouch in that category. Wynn gave a lot of the credit to his defensive prowess this year, although he was very good last year, it was a finals last year, but gave a lot of the credit to just routine. Really? He was telling Derek Gould of the Post Dispatch. I'll link his story in the description and in the show notes saying it was repeating fundamentals over and over and over and not veering from the path on that.

Starting point is 00:05:45 Every once in a while, I would make a few Jeter jump throws for the most part. It was taking the fundamentals and making sure that I can make them 99 out of 100 times in warmups. It didn't matter what day it was, what game of the year was. We were out there every single day. I wanted to make sure it was locked down. And I was somebody who was always fascinated by the defensive side of the game. My favorite player growing up was Ozzie Smith. He's on my wall over here. You can't see it right now.

Starting point is 00:06:14 I've got an autographed picture of him from the 85 World Series, turning a double play, jumping over a guy sliding into second base. But he was my favorite player growing up. So defensive baseball was a big deal to me. You know, Ozzy had a lot to do with that. I would watch his, you know, every dayers know this, I would watch his Ozzie, the movie videotape over and over. Yes, it was VHS. That's how long ago it was.

Starting point is 00:06:42 And we'd always had down to the ballpark, my father, my family, my mother, all of us, my little brother. We would head down early to watch the guys take infield. I always wanted to see it. And I remember just being astonished at how sharp and how fundamentally sound these guys were. at the major league level. And my dad used to, you know, we'd just sit there and watch him take infield. And he'd be like, you know, the good ones take hundreds of grounders a day, repetition, until it's almost programmed into your mind exactly how to react to each hop, to each bounce,

Starting point is 00:07:16 to each situation. You just do it over and over and over where it becomes robotic to you. And your body just reacts to everything. And that always stuck with me that, you know, if you really want to get really good at something, you just got to keep doing it over and over and over and keep trying. And as nice as it is to make the great plays, you know, the diving plays, the Jeter throws, as he mentions, going in the hole and making plays like that, making them up the middle. You know, where Mesa can use that cannon arm of his to get guys that nobody else can. But if you don't make the routine plays, like, who cares?

Starting point is 00:07:56 Cool, you're flashy, but you can't feel the. normal ground ball. It's kind of like Ellie de la Cruz for the Reds, where you see him make some pretty cool plays, right? But then he screws up all the simple ones. And he's a liability out there in the infield.

Starting point is 00:08:13 Mason Winn isn't that way. He can make those great plays for you and that's fantastic, but he'll make the easy, routine, simple ones. We call him easy because they appear to be easy, although they're getting smoked at him at 105 miles an hour. But you have to be able to make the

Starting point is 00:08:28 the normal place. Like you can't just take them for granted and just go through the motions. You got to work at it. So to hear the, you know, his thoughts on that at his age, being as young as he is, to know he's this mature about and is, you know, that's just a really great sign for things to come because this likely won't be his last goal glove, all right? You know, finalist last year, as I mentioned, he wins it this year. So in two full seasons, he's been nominated twice as one one.

Starting point is 00:08:55 So that kind of sets the tone for the future. and it's one that Mason intends on adding to. He said this to gold as well. I think I'll have many gold gloves in my career. I'm not going to stop at one. I want to do this every year. Be the best defender I can be year in and year out. And, you know, being strong up the middle is a big deal.

Starting point is 00:09:14 John Denton from MLB.com also believes that when, as a solid case of winning the National League's platinum glove award, which is, you know, goes to the best defensive player overall, an honor that's been won by Yadda or Molina four times, no one are. And I don't want it twice. So those are the guys in Cardinals history that have pulled it off. You know, and his defense of this is, you know, he was leading the league and outs above average until the injury ended his season prematurely.

Starting point is 00:09:41 Although we had more good news in Gould's article that, you know, Mason Wynn's been jogging, and the pain is gone and that's surgically repaired right knee, and he says he can really feel the difference. You know, and who knows how much that held him back in the second half of the year. defensively, we know it. We know it hurt him offensively, but what kind of damage was he doing defensively? You know, what was his range like, his ability to react?

Starting point is 00:10:05 All of that altered by this issue. So it's just great that he won it, you know, and he was acknowledged for maybe not being the name that Mookie Betz is, but deserving, certainly deserving and he takes home the gold. So congratulations to Mason. When there was another cardinal who was also nominated for a gold glove, but unfortunately did not take.

Starting point is 00:10:26 take home the award will discuss him and the rest of the NL and AL winners next. Plus, we got a Cardinals minor leaguer who won him some gold as well. We'll talk about it all coming up on Locked on Cardinals. The NBA is back and there is no better place to get in on the action than Fandall, the official sports betting partner of the NBA, even if you miss the start of the game or I want to ride the hot hand Fandle as live bets on everything from who's going to score next to fourth quarter comebacks. I got some names for you.

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Starting point is 00:12:03 underscore Cardinals. We're also on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram at Locktown Cardinals. As for the Cardinals, other gold glove finalists, sadly, our buddy, Victor Scott, friend of the show, did not take home the gold. We knew it was going to be an uphill battle for him. Like, this wasn't all that shocking. Despite having an excellent first full season for the Cardinals, Victor Scott the second walks away, empty handed, lost out to the Cubs. Pete Crow Armstrong, We finished tied with Mason in outs above average with 21. It was a plus 15 defensive runs saved. Now, Victor's numbers, obviously he was a finalist.

Starting point is 00:12:39 They weren't bad, nominated for a reason. But as far as center fielders go, he was a plus 12 defensive run saved among all center fielders trailed only Raphael, PCA, and the Nats, Jacob Young. Third among all center fielder's in outs above average with a plus 16 behind Raphael and PCA. The tough reality here is he's going to have to battle PCA for years to come. It isn't going to be easy for it because Picrow Armstrong isn't going anywhere anytime soon. And he's incredibly good. Not only does PCA have the range.

Starting point is 00:13:22 He's got speed. He's got incredible athletic ability. On top of that, he's also got a cannon for an art, one of the best in the league. So it's, it is really, really, really going to be tough for Victor Scott the second to win a gold glove in center field while PCA is in the National League. Like it's just not going to be easy. The Cubs faithful, they got quite a player roaming the Ivy there at Wrigley Field. It's going to be rough. So, but hey, your finalist, you deserved it.

Starting point is 00:13:56 Victor Scott was excellent. And I hope he continues to progress, not only. on the defensive side of things. But I hope, you know, the offense comes around where he can be talked about in the same sentences as PCA, who had the incredible first half and then went radio silent, the second half, came on later on at the end of the year. But, you know, that first half was just ridiculous by his PCA. So congratulations to Victor.

Starting point is 00:14:25 It sucks that he didn't win. But so be it. The Cubs ended up winning three gold gloves this year. Ian Hap wins his fourth consecutive goal glove and left field, leading all NL players in left field with a plus 9 DRS. Hap is the only player in Cubs history with three or more of them in the outfield. Nico Horner won at second base, his second gold glove award after leading all major league's second baseman in outs above the average with plus 14 and defensive run saved at plus 17. He joins the late Hall of Famer, Ryan Sandberg, as a winner of the award of the position multiple times for the Cubs. other winners in the National League.

Starting point is 00:15:00 He had Patrick Bailey for the Giants. He's the first Giants catcher to win multiple gold gloves in his career, following Buster Posey, former Cardinal player and manager Mike Mathini, and then Kurt Manwaring back in 1993. Can't say I'm familiar with that guy. But we know Mathini and Posey pretty well. At first base, it was the Braves Matt Olson, won his third gold glove award.

Starting point is 00:15:22 Third base, Brian Hayes, who played with both the Pirates and the Reds this year. That's his second. Right field, you have. had Fernando Tatis Jr. Son of Fernando Tatis. He used to play for the Cardinals. That's his second gold glove in right field.

Starting point is 00:15:34 Giants pitcher Logan Webb gets his first. And then the utility winner was the Marlins rookie, Javier Sanoia. Sanoja? Sanoja? Sanoja? Can't say I'm all that familiar with him either. First gold glove, obviously, he's a rookie. And the first for the Marlins, and try not to laugh at this,

Starting point is 00:15:54 but first for the Marlins, since. Marcel Ozuna. That's right. Marcel O'Zuna, former Cardinal. Marcel O'Zuna won in 2017, Sanoha. Javier Sanoha. I apologize for blitzering that one.

Starting point is 00:16:13 I was all over the place on that one. But anyway, 2017, Marcelo Zuna. Yes, the same guy that once climbed the left-field wall up with stadium on a fly ball that barely made it to the warning track. And then when he realized, he had done way too much face planet on that warning track, one of gold glove ones. The year before the cardals acquired him, actually.

Starting point is 00:16:39 One of the most unforgettable defensive bloopers I have ever seen. It will always stick with me. That and Jose Konseca, when he was with the Rangers, he went back on the fly ball and it bounced off his head over the wall for a home run. Those both are just seared into my brain. is some of the worst bloopers or best bloopers, depending on how you look at it by an outfield that I've ever seen. Over to the America League, your winners were the Tigers Dylan Dingler at Catcher, his first.

Starting point is 00:17:10 Ty France, who played with the twins of the Blue Jays, won at first base, his first. Rangers Marcus Simeon wins the second base, his second. The Royals Bobby Wade Jr. had shortstop his second consecutive. He's the only other player in franchise history. to win the awarded short. Alcides Escobar won it in 2015. Another royal, Michael Garcia,

Starting point is 00:17:32 won over a third base marking the first time in 12 years that both players on the left side of the infield for the same club won the Gold Glove Award in the same year. Your previous instance was 2013. It was the Orioles. Do you remember who it was? Third baseman, Mani Machado, who we always knew was a great third baseman,

Starting point is 00:17:49 still very, very good for the Padres. And shortstop, J.J. Hart, Yeah, write that down. J.J. Hardy and Mani Machado, 2013. In the outfield, you had Stephen Kwan in left field for the Guardians, Sadan, Raphael and Centerfield, and Willier-Abreu in right field, both for the Boston Red Sox or the Bo Sox, does I like to call him?

Starting point is 00:18:12 Makes the Red Sox the first AL team with multiple outfielders winning a Gold Glove award in the same year since the 2022 Guardians. Max Freed ends up winning for the Yankees at pitcher. It's his fourth. Gold glove at his first with the Yankees. He won three with Atlanta. And then the AO Utility Award winner was Mauricio Dubois of the Houston Astros, who appeared at seven different positions, finished sixth in MLB with a plus 20 outs above

Starting point is 00:18:41 average from all positions combined. That's pretty darn impressive. So that's nice to have, guy like that for the Houston Astros. When it comes to the Cardinals, despite only the two nominations and the one winner, the overall defense was very good this year. Contreras was a plus six DRS in his first year, first base. JC plus four as a shortstop, although we know we played other positions. Aronado plus three at third, Newpar was a plus two in right field, although Walker played out there most of the time. Donnie was a plus two at second base. The thing you think about now is like,

Starting point is 00:19:15 how are things going to change and shift around with the possible movement on the roster, with trades involving Aronado and maybe a Brennan Donovan. How will Newt's injury, double heel surgery? How is that going to affect his defense next season? Will Jordan Walker continue to be an issue in right field? I know eyeball test says he's better, but the stats do not. The stats say he's still terrible.

Starting point is 00:19:41 How will JJ Weatherholt play when he gets to the major leagues at either second or third base? Will Nolan Gorman still be here to play at second and third base? lots of fluctuation is possible for the St. Louis roster, but you've got some pretty good pieces with, you know, Mason went over at shortstop. Contreras playing first. You would assume he's going to get better. Victor Scott in center field,

Starting point is 00:20:05 those are some pretty reliable guys going into 2026. Wherever Brennan Donovan plays, if he is a member of the Cardinals, you know, you're pretty solid there. But the catching position is another position. You know, you always want to be strong up the middle, right? catcher shortstop, second, center field. That's a goal for every team.

Starting point is 00:20:23 To be strong defensively up the middle. The catching position is also what appears to be an area of strength. You know, you've got Pedro Pahas, who was very good defensively. Not amazing, but very good. Jimmy Crooks is somebody who's been very good in the minors defensively. But another Cardinals catching prospect just took home some gold this year as well. We're going to talk about him coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. The NFL season is back.

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Starting point is 00:22:33 Offensibly, you've had better. You've had better. But he doesn't, like, kill you offensively. He's not like he's hit 160 or something like that. Jimmy Crooks, we think, is kind of a mixture of both. He's going to give you some pop, left-handed hitter, pretty good defensively throughout his minor league career. Somebody that's supposed to be able to be pretty good at both sides.

Starting point is 00:22:55 we can throw in Joelle Pozo if you want to. Didn't kill you behind the plate. Obviously, we saw him shine as a pinch hitter off the bench, but we liked him. And it's that kind of depth that has prompted teams to wonder if the Cardinals might be willing to trade away a catcher at some point this offseason because beyond those four guys who already have Major League experience, the Cardinals also have two more catchers who are flying up the rankings in Major League Baseball.

Starting point is 00:23:24 an 18-year-old Raynaud Rodriguez and 21-year-old Leonardo Bernal. Now, Rodriguez is ranked third among Cardinals prospects, according to MLB pipeline. And right behind him is Bernal, who is ranked fourth. Both are on the top 100 best prospects in baseball right now. Rodriguez at 55, Bernal at 92, joining J.J. Weatherholt, who's our top prospect, ranked number five overall. And then pitcher Liam Doyle, who they just drafted this year, at number five overall is ranked 36th among the top 100.

Starting point is 00:23:56 Rodriguez is also ranked sixth overall at the catching position. And although Bernal does not crack that particular list, I'm sure he's right there on the fringe, he is on the list of minor league gold glove award winners for 2025, which is awesome because that's not an easy thing to do. A reminder that only one award is given per position among all the levels of minor league baseball. So Bernal didn't just win the award for the double A level, which is where he played at this year for Springfield.

Starting point is 00:24:26 But he beat out all of the catchers in minor league baseball. So A ball, high A, double A, triple A. He beat all of those guys to win the Gold Glove Award as the best defensive catcher in minor league baseball. And that, my friends, is pretty awesome, considering he's also an offensive threat, six feet. 245 switch hitter, 50 hit, 50 power tools to go with the 60 grade arm that throughout 27 of 60 16 out of 10th and steals. He also hit 247 with 13 home runs, 70 RBIs. He added 13 stolen bases. That's impressive stuff. And by winning the award, he joins only Victor Scott as a minor league gold glove award winner for Springfield. Scott won that award back in 2023.

Starting point is 00:25:20 and now you're seeing, you know, him flourish at the major league level as defensive player. Once again, we're hoping the offense will come around to make him more of a complete player and, you know, be a more dominant member of the outfield core for the Cardinals in 2026 and beyond. But it's another reason why I continue to bring up moving Ivan Herrera to a different position. Switching positions for Ivan Herrera continues to make a lot of sense to me, whether it's left field, whether it's first base, something other than catcher seems to eventually be the move, in my opinion. You know, we know the dude can hit at the major league level.

Starting point is 00:26:04 He's one of your middle of the bad orders. Why not save his legs? Save the injury risk. Let him be a slugger for years to come without the wear and tear of catching. It seems to make a whole lot of sense to me. And he hasn't even shown that he's been all that good as a catcher to begin with. So it's not like we're, well, but he's so good back there. Do we want him?

Starting point is 00:26:28 That's not the case. He hasn't been that good back there. So I know they're going to give it another try this year. We'll see how it goes. But I am the guy that is ready to go ahead and move them already. Move them over to someplace else and see what else he can do in a different position. I just, there's too much talent behind the plate already defensively that. I would rather see.

Starting point is 00:26:52 So as far as Leonardo Bernal, I've said this before, I believe he'll start the year at Memphis. There's no need to rush him up to the major leagues. We're going to look at him in spring training. He's got to be added to the 40 man this year. So if something does happen, if a trade goes down, if injuries happen,

Starting point is 00:27:09 he's going to be somebody that they can call upon very early if they need to, being that it'll be on the 40 man. So I don't know, looking forward to it. I'm excited for his future. and we'll just see what I'm Blum and company have in store as far as making any moves from that depth

Starting point is 00:27:27 at some point here in the offseason. All right, that's going to wrap things up. Thanks for making Lockdown Cardinals. First listed every day if you haven't already. Please give us a follow on accidentello underscore Cardinals into Jannie Sports Radio, TikTok, and Instagram and Lockedong Cardinals. Like, subscribe on YouTube

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Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - GOLDEN: Masyn Winn's ELITE Defense Earns Cardinals Their 100th Gold Glove Honor

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