Correa & Astros recognized for defensive excellence 

HOUSTON, TX - Tonight, Rawlings Sporting Goods Company, Inc. named shortstop Carlos Correa as the 2021 Platinum Glove Award winner as the game’s top individual defender and the Houston Astros as the American League Team Gold Glove Award winner.

Correa becomes the first player in franchise history to win the Platinum Glove Award. He was also the second shortstop in franchise history to win a Gold Glove, joining Roger Metzger in 1973. Correa led all Major League players in Defensive WAR (Wins Above Replacement) at 2.9 and Defensive Runs Saved (21). Amongst AL shortstops, he ranked third in fielding percentage (.981), third in assists (384), third in total chances (579) and third in zone rating (.794).

The Rawlings Platinum Glove Award winners are determined by combining votes based on an adjusted SABR Defensive Index for each of the nine Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners in each league, and votes from baseball fans worldwide.

In 2021, Houston had one other Gold Glove Award recipient in 1B Yuli Gurriel. He became the second Astros first basemen to win a Gold Glove, joining Jeff Bagwell in 1994. He led AL first basemen in zone rating (.874) and assists (86).

Astros RHP Zack Greinke, C Martín Maldonado and RF Kyle Tucker were also finalists for the AL Gold Glove Awards, but those positional awards were given to LHP Dallas Keuchel, C Sean Murphy and RF Joey Gallo.

The Rawlings Gold Glove Team Awards utilize a sabermetric model formulated by the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) known as the SABR Defensive Index™ (SDI). The SDI draws on and aggregates two types of existing defensive metrics: those derived from batted ball location-based data and those collected from play-by-play accounts. SDI utilizes MLBAM’s Statcast, Sports Information Solutions data, and STATS, LLC data as well as traditional statistics with advanced analysis.

The Astros led the AL in fielding percentage (.988) and total chances (5,835), while recording the fewest errors (69) in the Majors. Houston also ranked second in putouts (4,335) and third in assists (1,431) in the AL.

This marks the second year of The Rawlings Gold Glove Team Award with the Cleveland winning the award in 2020.