Mariners’ Cal Raleigh and Dylan Moore win Rawlings 2024 Gold Glove Awards for C, UT

Both Raleigh and Moore are first-time Gold Glovers

The Rawlings Gold Glove awards were announced tonight, and for the first time since 2020, the Mariners have not just one, but two winners: Cal Raleigh is the winner of the Rawlings Gold Glove for catcher, and Dylan Moore won for utility (although please, call him by his proper name: superutility). The wins break a mini-drought for the Mariners, who, after having at least one Gold Glove winner consecutively from 1987-2010, had a nine-year drought from 2010-2018 until back-to-back wins (P Mike Leake won in 2019, and SS J.P. Crawford and 1B Evan White won in 2020) before missing again for another three years (Julio Rodríguez was nominated in 2023 but lost out to Jays centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier).

In a season where Cal Raleigh set personal and team records offensively and earned the local BBWAA chapter’s MVP award, he now gains baseball’s highest defensive award for his work behind the dish. No other catcher in baseball caught as many innings as Cal Raleigh did this year, and very few caught at the same defensive level of excellence Raleigh brought behind the dish every night.

Raleigh’s recognition follows an off-season where he worked intensely to improve his framing, taking lessons from Guardians catcher Austin Hedges, one of the game’s best overall defensive catchers. The student surpassed the teacher this season, with Raleigh taking over Hedges’ 2023 spot with +13 framed runs added, second-best in baseball behind the Giants’ Patrick Bailey.

But Raleigh will be the first to tell you that he didn’t put in that extra work to burnish his reputation or gain recognition; he did it to find another advantage to gift his pitchers. Check out this reel of Cal’s stolen strikeouts this year, each of which tilted the game ever so slightly in the Mariners’ favor, and sometimes more than slightly, earning his pitchers extra outs and helping them go deep into games—something they did better than any other staff in baseball.

(Make sure you listen with the sound on so you can hear the opposing announcers ranging from disbelief to disgust.) Cal is especially good at receiving sliders and sweepers, as this excellent Twitter thread details, which is good, because basically every Mariners starter throws one of those, and some throw two.

Cal is the first Mariner catcher to win the Gold Glove, something he described as an “honor” on ESPN during an interview right after the award was announced. I don’t know about you, but watching the playoffs was the most non-Mariners baseball I watched in a concentrated burst all season, and while it was impressive to watch the incredible offensive highlights on display, for me it was a real Cal Raleigh appreciation tour watching the various receivers stab, slash, and bobble their way behind the plate. To echo Tina Turner, Cal is simply the best, and now he has some shiny gold of his own, of which Ms. Turner would surely approve. Hopefully Cal can also add some silver to his wardrobe, as well; he’d be the first Mariners catcher to earn a Silver Slugger award, as well. Silver Slugger finalists will be announced tomorrow, and will be awarded November 12.

Dylan Moore also became a first-time winner of a Gold Glove, earning recognition as a utility player. Rawlings has only recognized “utility” as a distinct category since 2022; previous winners include DJ LeMahieu and Mauricio Dubòn. Dubòn was up for the award again this year, and posted very strong fielding metrics - better in some cases than Moore’s, while both appeared in the same amount of games. However, Moore was more of a true utility player than Dubón, who spent most of his time in the outfield, while Moore played six positions, including spending significant time covering the difficult job of shortstop while J.P. Crawford was out. Per Mariners PR, DMo is one of just four AL players since 2019 who have played at every position on the field except catcher. (Let’s see if we can’t get him behind the dish this spring and see if he can win again next year as an ultra-super-utility player.)

With Raleigh earning the Mariners’ first Gold Glove at catcher and Moore winning in the recently-created category of utility, the Mariners now have a Gold Glove in their history at every position. Each now has a chance to earn a Platinum Glove, given to the single best overall defender in each league; you can vote for either of them at the Rawlings website (and bonus, maybe win something for your vote.) The Platinum Glove awards will be announced at the Gold Gloves award dinner on November 8; vote by November 7 (and also vote in that other election, if you haven’t yet).