2020 Rawlings Gold Glove Award® Winners Announced

ST. LOUIS, Nov. 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Rawlings Sporting Goods Company, Inc., announced the winners for the 2020 Rawlings Gold Glove Award^®, honoring the best individual fielding performances at each position in the American League^® and National League^®. The winners were unveiled during a live, one-hour “Baseball Tonight” broadcast hosted by Karl Ravech and Mark Teixeira that aired on ESPN Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, at 8 p.m. ET.

Recognized as the best defensive players at their respective positions, this year’s class of honorees includes seven previous winners of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award and 11 first-time winners. Nolan Arenado of the Colorado Rockies is the consecutive award leader with eight straight awards. Arenado ties Alex Gordon as this year’s class leader with eight Rawlings Gold Glove Awards each.  

“We’d like to congratulate the 2020 Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners for their superior defensive play this season,” said Mike Thompson, chief marketing officer for Rawlings. “Despite 2020 being an unconventional season, these athletes showed day in and day out why their defensive prowess is worthy of being recognized with this iconic award.”

Historically, the Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners have been determined by a vote from 30 managers and up to six of their respective coaches. Each manager and coach vote from a pool of qualified players in their League and cannot vote for players from their own team. In 2013, Rawlings added a sabermetric component to the Rawlings Gold Glove Award selection process, as part of its collaboration with the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). The SABR Defensive Index™ (SDI) has previously comprised approximately 25 percent of the overall selection total, with the managers’ and coaches’ vote continuing to carry the majority.

Due to the compressed 2020 season, the Award qualifications have been amended to rely solely on the SDI which draws on and aggregates two types of existing defensive metrics: those derived from batted ball location-based data and those collected from play-by-play accounts.  SDI utilizes MLBAM’s Statcast, Sports Information Solutions data, and STATS, LLC data as well as traditional statistics with advanced analysis. For 2020 Award consideration, pitchers must have pitched at least 50 innings, catchers must have played in at least 29 games and infielders/outfielders must have completed at least 265 defensive innings. Each player qualifies at the position he has played at most (SDI is only for play at qualified position).

“The Society for American Baseball Research is proud to partner with Rawlings to honor this season’s best defenders at the highest level of game play,” said Scott Bush, chief executive officer for SABR. “We remain committed to providing trusted data to support and authenticate Gold-Glove winning performance on-field each year.”

Below are the complete rosters of the 2020 Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners from each League and the number of Rawlings Gold Glove Awards each player has won in his career:

Voting for the Rawlings Platinum Glove Award presented by SABR will begin online at www.Rawlings.com on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 9 p.m. ET and will remain open through Thursday, Nov. 5 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The Rawlings Platinum Glove Award winners will be unveiled exclusively on MLB Network’s Emmy Award-winning “MLB Tonight” on Friday, Nov. 6 at 6 p.m. ET, co-hosted by Stephen Nelson, Dan Plesac and Ron Darling. 

About the Rawlings Gold Glove Award^®
The Rawlings Gold Glove Award^® is a registered trademark owned by Rawlings Sporting Goods Company, Inc. The award is correctly identified as the Rawlings Gold Glove Award. The name should not be shortened, abbreviated or otherwise misused. Proper identification of this service mark using the registration symbol and the Rawlings name is important to protect the integrity of the program and perpetuate this worthy tradition. For more information, please visit www.Rawlings.com.

About Rawlings
Established in 1887, Rawlings is a leading global sports brand and manufacturer of premium baseball and softball equipment. Rawlings’ unparalleled quality, innovative engineering and expert craftsmanship are the fundamental reasons why more professional athletes, national governing bodies and sports leagues choose Rawlings. Rawlings is the Official Baseball, Helmet, Face Guard and Glove of Major League Baseball^®, the Official Baseball of Minor League Baseball™ and the Official Baseball and Softball of the NCAA^® and NAIA^®. For more information, please visit www.Rawlings.com.