The Cincinnati Reds have not had a player win a Gold Glove Award since the 2020 season, and haven’t had a player win a Gold Glove Award in a full season since back in 2017. Both of those, you’ll recall,
were earned by catcher Tucker Barnhart, and the Reds haven’t had a non-catcher take home a Gold Glove since Brandon Phillips back in 2013.
Defense during most of that spell has not exactly been the Reds calling card. From the 2021 season through 2024, their overall -139.1 DEF saw them ranked as the sixth worst among baseball’s 30 franchises, a timeframe that featured questionable decisions like moving a decrepit Mike Moustakas from 3B to 2B, moving countless infielders to the outfield, playing Nick Castellanos at all, relying on Jonathan India everyday at 2B, and keeping Joey Votto at 1B when he was better suited for DH-only duties late in his career.
On the surface, at least, it appears that mantra has begun to evolve.
Nick Krall & Co. made Ke’Bryan Hayes their big trade deadline addition in 2025, eschewing the fact that a) he’s one of the absolute worst offensive players in the game and b) he’s signed to a long-term contract. Hayes is perhaps the single best defensive 3B in all of baseball, however, and Krall has made effort after effort to emphasize the importance of defense ever since.
Hayes was named a finalist for a Gold Glove Award on Tuesday, with Spencer Steer (at 1B) joining him as a finalist. Steer, to his credit, settled in at 1B for over 1000 innings in 2025 after spending more time in the outfield in previous years, and it paid off for him with the glove – he ranked tied for 5th in fielding run value per Statcast out of all players who played 1B this past season.
It’s been quite the revelation for Cincinnati’s corner infield in the last three months given that mid-year everything sure pointed towards Noelvi Marte and Sal Stewart being the future of the positions. Marte got moved to RF to make way for Hayes, however, and settled in pretty nicely out there. Stewart, meanwhile, seems to be biding his time as the Reds try to sort out what to do with Steer in front of him, a situation now complicated by the fact that Steer’s defensive value at 1B significantly outweighs his defensive value as a LF.
Congrats to both on being named finalists. I’d wager Hayes has a pretty rock solid chance at actually winning at his position.
