These guys flash the leather-based like no one else. Now they’ve earned their {hardware} as the highest defensive prospects in baseball.
Three High 100 prospects — together with baseball’s prime general prospect — headlined the nine-player crop of 2025 Minor League Gold Glove Award winners, Rawlings and Minor League Baseball introduced Sunday. Pirates shortstop Konnor Griffin (No. 1 general prospect), Cardinals catcher Leonardo Bernal (MLB No. 92) and Marlins lefty Robby Snelling (MLB No. 51) had been the High 100 guys to snag gold at their respective positions, together with six different gamers ranked on their group’s High 30 lists.
Griffin, the ninth general choose within the 2024, catapulted himself to the highest of the highest prospects record with a sensational debut season unfold throughout three ranges. A double-plus runner with a double-plus arm, Griffin’s athleticism helped him to excel at each shortstop and heart area. However he collected his {hardware} as a shortstop, the place he posted a .980 fielding share and was solely charged with seven errors in 89 video games.
A Padres first-round choose in 2022 out of the Nevada prep ranks, the 21-year-old Snelling turned a nook in his first full season within the Marlins group, pitching to a 1.27 ERA in 11 begins at Triple-A to complete the yr. He didn’t commit an error in 136 innings of labor and was adept at controlling the operating recreation — opposing basestealers solely had a 57 % success charge in opposition to the southpaw in stolen-base makes an attempt. That is the second straight yr Miami had a prime prospect on this record, after Snelling’s batterymate, Joe Mack (MLB No. 70) nabbed Gold Glove honors at catcher in 2024.
This yr, that honor went to the 21-year-old Bernal, the switch-hitting backstop who appears to be like just like the Cardinals’ catcher of the long run. Bernal got here into his personal defensively this season behind the plate, constructing on the earlier strides in blocking and framing and solidifying himself as one of many Minors’ greatest throwers. He threw out 27 of 69 making an attempt basestealers, good for an elite 39 % caught-stealing charge, second-best amongst backstops at Double-A.
The opposite ranked prospects to assert Gold Glove honors had been Triple-A Durham first baseman Tre’ Morgan, Excessive-A Cedar Rapids second baseman Kyle DeBarge, Double-A Knoxville third baseman Pedro Ramirez, Double-A Biloxi outfielder Luis Lara, Excessive-A Hillsboro heart fielder Druw Jones and Double-A Montgomery outfielder Homer Bush Jr.
Right here is the complete record of 2025 Minor League Gold Glove winners:
C: Leonardo Bernal (STL No. 4/MLB No. 92), Springfield (AA)1B: Tre’ Morgan (TB No. 7), Durham (AAA)2B: Kyle DeBarge (MIN No. 11), Cedar Rapids (A+)3B: Pedro Ramirez (CHC No. 8), Knoxville (AA)SS: Konnor Griffin (PIT No. 1/MLB No. 1), Bradenton (A), Greensboro (A+), Altoona (AA)OF: Luis Lara (MIL No. 12), Biloxi (AA)OF: Druw Jones (AZ No. 14), Hillsboro (A+)OF: Homer Bush Jr. (TB No. 23), Montgomery (AA)P: Robby Snelling (MIA No. 3/MLB No. 51), Pensacola (AA), Jacksonville (AAA)
