Today the nominees for the Rawlings Gold Glove Award were announced. Each league has three nominees per position. As a poor defensive team, the Nationals did not have a lot of representation. Only one National got nominated, and unsurprisingly that was Jacob Young.
Young is developing a reputation as one of the best defensive center fielders in all of baseball, and it is well deserved. He covers so much ground in the outfield and can make hard plays look easy. As most of the great defenders do, Young also has a flair for the dramatic, making some truly spectacular plays.
In 2025, Young made so many highlight reel plays. You can make a whole compilation of them and still have room to spare. From July onwards, it felt like Young was making some sort of crazy play about once a week. From robbing home runs to making acrobatic plays, the Nats center fielder was doing it all.
This season, Young had 14 outs above average, which is actually fewer than the 20 he piled up last year. However, it felt like he made more spectacular plays this year. Last year, Young had the numbers but maybe not the signature moments. That may have been why he lost the award in 2024 despite having more OAA than the winner Brenton Doyle.
Young made an outstanding last impression to voters in September as well. He made a number of crazy catches, but his play against the Mets was my favorite. Young was going for a ball at the wall and he had it in his glove. However, it popped out and he had to improvise. What Young did next was special. He kicked the ball up in the air and right into his glove. I had never seen anything like that before.
The play helped keep the big money Mets out of the playoffs. However, despite all the crazy plays, he is not the favorite for this award. I would actually be surprised if he won. Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Cubs is one of the rising young stars in the game. He also posted 24 outs above average this season.
With all the media attention PCA gets, as well as those numbers, he is likely to win this award. However, it is cool to see Young get the respect he deserves. There are plenty of holes in his game, but his defense is truly elite.
Watching him go get it in center field is a treat. The jumps are always so good and with his elite speed, he can get to just about any ball. His flair for the dramatic is also a lot of fun to watch. Hopefully Young can win one of these at some point in his career because it is an honor he deserves. The Gold Glove winners are announced on November 2nd.