It won’t be long until the Kansas City Royals find out whether a trio of their best players will win Rawlings Gold Gloves for the stellar defense they played this season. In the running to add their names to the long list of Royals Gold Glovers are shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., third baseman Maikel Garcia, and center fielder Kyle Isbel, all of whom are finalists for the 2025 awards.
Witt, who won his first Gold Glove last season, is perhaps the best Royal bet to win this year, but Garcia and Isbel are both worthy of the honor. And if any or all of Kansas City’s finalists win, they’ll take their places among such Royals standouts as Amos Otis, winner of the club’s first Gold Glove in 1971, George Brett, Frank White, Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer, and Salvador Perez.
Yes, KC’s Gold Glove list is packed with storied players immediately recognizable as superb defenders. But some fans may not remember some of the franchise’s players won Gold Gloves during their Kansas City tenures.
Here are three.
A future Royals manager won a Gold Glove with the club in 1989
Catcher Bob Boone played the last of his 19 major league seasons with the Royals in 1990. It was the second of his short two-year stay as a player with the Royals, who by then were in the initial stages of the ugly playoff drought that began the year after their 1985 World Series triumph and didn’t end until 2014.
Boone played only 40 times in his final KC campaign and never appeared in a big league game again. But his short tenure with the club wasn’t without its bright moments, including the snaring of his seventh Gold Glove in 1989 when he played above-league average defense and threw out 41% of runners who unwisely tested his arm.
A member of the storied Boone baseball family — son Aaron manages the Yankees, son Bret played for five big league clubs, brother Rod and Bob’s son Matt played minor league ball, and father Ray was a major leaguer for 13 years — Bob managed the Royals to a 70-74 record during the strike-shortened 1995 season and a last-place American League Central finish in 1996. The club replaced him with Tony Muser midway through the 1997 campaign.
This two-time Cy Young award winner won a Gold Glove with the Royals
Kansas City fans’ most enduring image of Bret Saberhagen is probably the celebratory hug he and George Brett shared on the Kauffman Stadium mound after the Royals finished off St. Louis in the seventh game of the 1985 World Series.
And they know all about the two Cy Young awards he won as a Royal, the first coming after his 20-6, 2.87 ERA record during that memorable ’85 campaign (his 20th victory was crucial to KC’s championship drive), and the second when he went an even better 23-6 with a 2.16 ERA in 1989.
What they may not immediately recall, though, is that as a Royal, Saberhagen won his only Gold Glove. He took home the prestigious award for the fine defense he played during his remarkable ’89 season.
A member of the club’s Hall of Fame since 2005, Saberhagen pitched two more seasons for the Royals before making stops with the Mets, Rockies, and Red Sox before closing out his 16-year big league career in 2001. He finished with a 167-117 record, including the 110-78, 3.21 ERA marks he recorded in eight years with the Royals.
This excellent second baseman captured his only Gold Glove as a Royal
After spending the first 10 years of his 13 major league seasons working for the Expos, Dodgers, Cubs, and Cardinals, Mark Grudzielanek gave the Royals three decent seasons (2006-2008) before playing in Minnesota’s minor league system in 2009, then retiring after appearing in 30 games for Cleveland in 2010. Across his trio of Royals years, he slashed .300/.339/.412.
And he also happened to win his only Gold Glove here as well.
The award came for the 2006 season when he played above- league average defense in 132 games at second base, led AL second basemen in double plays, and posted a 15 DRS.
The Royals will now hope to add on to their Gold Glove history when winners the 2025 Gold Glove winners are announced on Nov. 2.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
