Chicago, Illinois: Pete Crow-Armstrong Wins Platinum Glove as Cubs Repeat as Top Defensive Team

Chicago has the best defensive team in the National League for the second straight year, and its center fielder is now the league's top defender on his own. Rawlings announced on Friday night that Pete Crow-Armstrong won the 2026 National League Platinum Glove Award, and that the Chicago Cubs repeated as winners of the National League Team Gold Glove Award.

Crow-Armstrong, 24, is the first National League center fielder to win a Platinum Glove since the award began in 2011, and the first center fielder from either league to win it since Byron Buxton of Minnesota in 2017, according to theScore. He joins Anthony Rizzo as the only Cubs players to win the honor. His outs above average led all qualified outfielders, nine ahead of Boston's Ceddanne Rafaela, and he finished in the 100th percentile for outfield range. He ranked first among National League defenders in fielding run value and range value, and he saved 16 runs on defense.

A second straight Gold Glove opened the door

The Platinum Glove is drawn from the season's Gold Glove winners, and Crow-Armstrong reached the ballot by winning his second straight Gold Glove in center field on Sunday. He was one of two Cubs winners, with third baseman Alex Bregman taking the award at his position. Chicago placed five players on the final ballots in all, with shortstop Dansby Swanson, left fielder Ian Happ and right fielder Seiya Suzuki named as finalists alongside the two winners.

As a team, the Cubs committed just 61 errors in 2026, by far the fewest in the majors, and posted a major league best 115 defensive runs saved. Both team winners led their league in the SABR Defensive Index, the rating built by the Society for American Baseball Research that Rawlings uses for the team award, according to theScore and Sportsnet.

Bellinger and Toronto take the American League honors

In the American League, New York Yankees left fielder Cody Bellinger won the Platinum Glove. Bellinger saved 21 defensive runs, the most among American League left fielders, and became the second Yankee to win the award, after catcher Jose Trevino in 2022. Bellinger and Crow-Armstrong were teammates in Chicago in 2023 and 2024, before Bellinger moved to New York.

The Toronto Blue Jays won the American League Team Gold Glove for the third time in the past four seasons. Toronto saved 51 runs on defense as a team, third in the American League, and won the team award in a year when none of its five individual finalists won a Gold Glove.

The awards close a season in which Chicago finished 89-73 and lost to the San Diego Padres in the National League Wild Card Series. Awards season continues on Monday, November 9, when the American League and National League Rookies of the Year are announced.