MLB announced that Cody Bellinger is the 2026 AL Rawlings Platinum Glove winner, which makes the Yankees’ left fielder the best defender in the AL by the award’s voting.
Cody Bellinger adds the Rawlings Platinum Glove to his crowded trophy case 🏆
He joins Jose Trevino (2022) as the only Yankees to win the Platinum Glove in the 16-year history of the award. pic.twitter.com/doX74TQy0H
— MLB (@MLB) November 7, 2026
Bellinger also took the AL Gold Glove in left field, and the Platinum is the next rung up: a single winner per league, pulled from the Gold Glove class by fan votes plus an SDI-based component. The award started in 2011, and MLB says Bellinger joins Jose Trevino as the only Yankees to win it in those 16 years. Trevino got his in 2022, his first.
Sixteen years, two Yankees. Think about that the next time somebody tells you the Bronx only buys bats.
The Yankees, an AL East rival, now have a Platinum Glove in left field. Boston fans can take that however they like.
Now the opinion part, and it is only opinion, about baseball talk in general and not a knock on the Red Sox roster. Offseason conversation everywhere runs on who will hit thirty homers, who will lead off, who will protect whoever. Glove talk shows up in March, usually after somebody boots a ball, and then it disappears again.
To me, that is backwards. A run saved counts the same as a run driven in, and nobody makes a banner for the guy who took a double away in the fifth inning of a Tuesday game. A Platinum Glove at least gets somebody to say the quiet thing out loud.
So here is my ask for the winter. When the hot stove talk starts, make the first question about who can catch the ball, then who can hit it. The glove should get invited to the conversation before the bat finishes its second drink.
