The Los Angeles Dodgers had Mookie Betts (shortstop) and Miguel Rojas (utility) place among the top-three finishers at their respective positions for 2025 Gold Glove Award voting.
Betts is looking to win his seventh career Gold Glove Award and first as a shortstop. Nick Allen (Atlanta Braves) and Masyn Winn (St. Louis Cardinals) are also finalists for the NL Gold Glove at shortstop.
Betts completed his first full season at the position after playing just 65 games there in 2024.
It is a difficult task for any player to make the transition to shortstop on a regular basis. But for Betts, who has primarily played the outfield in his career, the feat is even more impressive.
“It’s cool,” Betts said of being a finalist for the NL Gold Glove Award at shortstop. “Like I said, I don’t really care about it. I’m just doing my job. That’s how I kind of view it. But I mean, it’s cool.
“If I win a Gold Glove at short, that will be something I can definitely tell my son I was able to do one in the infield and one in the outfield. But at the end of the day, the World Series is what’s the most important.”
Betts led all qualifying shortstops with 17 defensive runs saved this season and placed near the top in several other categories, including fielding percentage.
“I don’t know. God-given abilities,” Betts answered when asked how he became one of the best defensive shortstops in such a short amount of time. “I mean, I’m just doing my job.
“I’m just doing my job going out there and playing short. That’s all.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts previously noted that he was astounded by the progress Betts showed from last year to this year at shortstop.
“I think the only person on this planet that believed that Mookie Betts would be in this conversation was Mookie Betts,” Roberts said. “It’s just something that has never been done. It’s incredible.
“Obviously I’m at a loss for words that he’s in this position, where last year the confidence wasn’t there playing shortstop and kicking him out to right field to help our ballclub, to wondering if it was the right decision to put him at short, to now being a Gold Glove finalist, being so trustworthy.
“I feel he’s very, very warranted in winning a Gold Glove. So to kind of add to his hardware, it’s pretty amazing. Hats off to Mookie.”
Miguel Rojas praises Mookie Betts
Rojas, a seasoned veteran with plenty of experience playing shortstop, believes Betts is already running laps around him at the position.
“He’s been even better than me,” Rojas said of Betts. “I’ve never had a season with so many defensive runs saved or anything like that. That talks about the willing to play every single day, regardless of what you are doing offensively.
“In the middle of the year he was in a slump offensively, but he never let the defense down. That’s really impressive.
“As a defender at the shortstop position and playing for a lot of years, I feel like it’s really easy to check out and go full offensive mode. He always said to me, ‘Even though I’m sucking right now at hitting, I’m never going to be bad at defense.’
“That’s the mentality you have to have to be a really good shortstop.”
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