The best defenders in baseball were honored Sunday night as Major League Baseball handed out their Gold Gloves
November 1, 2026
at 9:36 pm ET
•
2 min to read
The winners of the 2016 Rawlings Gold Glove were announced Sunday night by Major League Baseball and, as expected, Cubs wunderkind Pete Crow-Armstrong took home his second straight National League Gold Glove in center field. PCA, who also won the 2025 Gold Glove and is expected to be named the NL MVP in 2026, was the best defender in baseball this past season by both the numbers and the eye test.
Here are the best outfielders in 2026 according to Statcasts Fielding Run Value, an all-encompassing metric that factors in pitches and arms, such as blocking catches and fielding;
- Pete Crow-Armstrong: +26 FRV
- JJ Wetherholt: +23 FRV
- Bobby Witt Jr. + 17 FRV
- Masyn Winn: + 17 FRV
- Several tied with 16 FRV
Crow-Armstrong’s +26 FRV is the fifth best in a single season since his FRV was posted in 2016, and the second best by a non-catcher, trailing only Nick Ahmed’s +28 FRV during his 2018 season at shortstop.
The Gold Gloves have been awarded since 1957 and are given to the best defensive performance in each league. He had an MLB-wide honor in his first year at every position. In 1958, the Gold Gloves were split into the AL and NL. Also, there used to be three outsiders per league for the exact position. Now the outfield spots are broken up into left field, center field, and right field.
Winners are determined by manager/coach votes (75%) and statistics (25%). Teams cannot vote their own players.
While MLB has announced the “finalists” for each Gold Glove in a few weeks, keep in mind that voting is now complete and those finalists were simply the top three vote-getters at each position. This means, obviously, that the effect of the seasons had no impact. Here are now the winners of the 2026 Golden Globe.