Pete Crow-Armstrong Won the NL Platinum Glove After a 40/40 Season. Only Barry Bonds Has Paired That With a Gold Glove.
Pete Crow-Armstrong won the 2026 National League Platinum Glove, announced Friday night at the Rawlings ceremony at The Plaza Hotel in New York. The vote was about his defense. It is his bat that makes the award historic.
The Chicago Cubs center fielder hit 45 home runs and stole 41 bases this season. He also led the Majors with 26 outs above average. He and Barry Bonds are the only players ever to post a 40-homer, 40-steal season and win a Gold Glove.
Crow-Armstrong is 24. This is his first Platinum Glove, and he is the second Cub to win one, after Anthony Rizzo in 2016.
The Defensive Case Is Not Close
The Platinum Glove goes to one player per league, the best overall defender regardless of position, with candidates limited to that league’s Gold Glove winners. It is decided by combining worldwide fan voting on Rawlings.com with votes derived from an adjusted SABR Defensive Index.
Crow-Armstrong has led or tied for the Major League lead in outs above average in each of the last two seasons. Since 2024 he sits at plus-63, second only to Bobby Witt Jr. at plus-64. He added 16 defensive runs saved this year, tied for seventh among all players, with 23 runs prevented and eight five-star catches across 157 games. He won his second straight NL Gold Glove in center field on Nov. 1.
One wrinkle: he finished second in the NL in SABR Defensive Index, behind Milwaukee’s Brice Turang. The fan half of the vote is what carried him.
“We take the field every day knowing that we’re very capable of changing the course of a ballgame with our gloves,” Crow-Armstrong said after winning the Gold Glove a week earlier.
Cody Bellinger Won the AL Award in Pinstripes
The American League Platinum Glove went to Cody Bellinger, the New York Yankees left fielder who was a Cub as recently as 2025. He is the second Yankee to win it, after catcher Jose Trevino in 2022.
Bellinger, 31, posted plus-21 defensive runs saved, tied for third in baseball and the most of any left fielder, with plus-6 outs above average and eight outfield assists in 123 games at the position. He won the AL Gold Glove in left, his second career Gold Glove and his first since 2019 in Los Angeles, where he won it in right field.
He has been clear about why one position helped. “I think with one position, you get the reps, consistency and a consistent arm release,” Bellinger said. Aaron Boone’s version was shorter: “He’s a tremendous athlete.”
Bellinger is working through a five-year, $162.5 million contract signed last offseason, with an opt-out after 2027.
The Cubs Won the Team Award Anyway
Chicago took the NL team Gold Glove for the second straight season, its third overall, tied with Toronto for the most of any club. The Cubs led the Majors with plus-72 outs above average and plus-115 defensive runs saved, and led the NL with a .990 fielding percentage. Alex Bregman won a Gold Glove at third base for them, his second.
Toronto won the AL team award with a stranger profile: third in the league with 51 defensive runs saved and fifth with plus-14 outs above average, no individual Gold Glove winners, and the most errors in the American League.
Boston and Arizona led the individual Gold Glove class with three winners each.
Witt Did Something Nobody Had Done
Bobby Witt Jr. won his third straight Heart and Hustle Award from the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association, making him the first player to win it three times. Craig Biggio won it twice.
“I try to go out there and leave it all on the field because you never know who is watching you,” Witt said.
Witt is also the one player ahead of Crow-Armstrong in outs above average since 2024. The two best gloves in baseball went home with the two awards that are hardest to fake.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
