Despite Carlos Santana's Great Showing, Fielding Bible Awards Show Twins' Weakness

Though the Gold Gloves get far more attention, the Fielding Bible Awards have become by far the better platform on which the best fielders in MLB are honored each year. Whereas the Gold Gloves are voted on by coaches and managers (who often show halfhearted interest in the process and are often ignorant of some things going on outside their own rosters) on shallow ballots, the Fielding Bible Awards are decided by the votes of 16 experts who work in the public sphere, much like the MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year Awards. Each voter completes a 10-player ballot at each position.

Rather than an NL and an AL winner, there is only one Fielding Bible Award per position, plus a Multi-Position Award—an innovation started by the Fielding Bibles before it was introduced as part of the Gold Gloves. However, Sports Info Solutions—the progenitor and sponsor of the awards—releases the full voting results, so we can see who came close to winning an award, as well as who actually did. It's much more indicative of a great defensive season to finish second or third in Fielding Bible voting than to win a Gold Glove.

Alas, the Twins didn't do especially well in this year's voting. That, perhaps, is to be expected. The 2024 Minnesota Twins were not a good defensive team. They finished with -20 Defensive Runs Saved, sixth-worst in MLB, and the voting for Fielding Bible honors reflects the collective ineptitude at an individual level. Let's run down the handful of notable results for the team.

First, the good news—literally. First baseman Carlos Santana was the only true defensive bright spot on the Twins this season, and he finished third in Fielding Bible Award voting at the cold corner. Matt Olson of Atlanta won, and Arizona's Christian Walker finished second, but in a system in which 160 would be a perfect score for a unanimous winter, there was no runaway in that contest. Olson got 142 vote points, Walker 132, and Santana tucked in close behind at 126. It was almost a toss-up among the three, and Santana led the AL in the balloting.

Not only did Santana not win, though, but no other Minnesota infielder came anywhere near it. The Twins didn't manage so much as a 10th-place vote for any player at third base, shortstop, or second base, and Christian Vázquez finished 11th with 18 vote points at catcher. A healthy Carlos Correa might have put himself in the mix, but since winning a Fielding Bible prize in 2021, Correa hasn't even made the top 10 in any of his three seasons with Minnesota. Vázquez is an adequate defender in a relatively low-volume role, so his placement feels appropriate. The bigger problems for the Twins are that, when Correa was hurt and when Vázquez had the day off, they were using even worse defenders at those crucial positions. Meanwhile, none of their various options at second or third base was anywhere close to getting meaningful support.

In right field voting, Max Kepler represented the Twins relatively strongly, finishing seventh. He was the only outfielder to receive votes. Byron Buxton had an exceptionally healthy season, by his unfortunate standards for that, but he's a greatly diminished defender and was not among the 17 center fielders who got votes. That the team has so much money still committed to Correa and Buxton, given their overall payroll picture and the decline in each player's non-batting value over the last two seasons, is discouraging.

Willi Castro did collect a few votes for the Multi-Position Fielding Bible Award. Unlike his hilariously high standing in Gold Glove voting, though, he finished 17th in Fielding Bible balloting, a much better reflection of the way his lack of positive value at any one position eats into the value of his versatility. No Twins pitcher got any support, one year after three of the team's hurlers (Pablo López, Bailey Ober, and Sonny Gray) finished in the top 11. 

As the team tries to reshape its roster this winter, shoring up their defense should be a top priority. With Santana and Kepler due to become free agents in a few days, there's a strong case to be made that Minnesota currently has the worst collection of fielders in baseball. It will take some bold, creative action to solve that problem, but if they don't, they'll repeat the bitter disappointment of 2024 in 2025.