Tanner Bibee’s 2026 season was a grind on the mound, but Sunday night brought a different kind of payoff for the Guardians right-hander. He picked up his first Rawlings Gold Glove Award, earning the American League’s top honor for defensive pitching.
Bibee beat out Texas’ Jacob deGrom and José Soriano, who split the season between the Angels and Blue Jays, to claim the award. He’s the first Cleveland pitcher to win it since Shane Bieber in 2022.
The recognition fits the numbers behind Bibee’s glove work. He finished with five defensive runs saved and tied for second in the majors with nine net bases prevented, the Statcast measure of a pitcher’s ability to control the running game. Two seasons after getting a Gold Glove nomination in 2024 and falling short, he finally broke through.
It also gives him something positive to hang onto after a frustrating year. Bibee lost 15 games even though he led Cleveland’s staff in starts and innings, and for much of the season he got the lowest run support per nine innings of any American League starter. That left him with almost no room to breathe.
The year got even stranger in October, when manager Stephen Vogt left Bibee out of postseason starts and used him mostly in an emergency bullpen role. After Cleveland was eliminated from the ALCS, Bibee said he had reached an uneasy peace with how he was handled, even if it was hard to accept.
The Gold Glove closes his fourth big league season on a much better note. Bibee had already been honored for his defense in October, when he won his second career Fielding Bible Award.
Steven Kwan’s run of Gold Gloves came to an end, though. The Guardians outfielder had won the American League award in left field from 2022 through 2025, but this year he was a finalist in center and lost to Boston’s Ceddanne Rafaela.
Kwan split his time between left and center, appearing in 98 games in left and 88 in center while posting 17 defensive runs saved as he adjusted to the new spot. Rafaela finished with 21 defensive runs saved and 2.5 defensive wins above replacement.
Kwan had joined Kenny Lofton last season as the only Cleveland outfielders to win four straight Gold Gloves. A fifth would have pushed him past Lofton and left him behind only Omar Vizquel’s eight among Cleveland players.
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Guardians Trade Return Just Took Another Turn Fans Will Notice
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For Cleveland, Heuers brief run with the club was uneven, with a 4.66 ERA in 9 2/3 big league appearances, but his work in Triple-A with Baltimore in 2026 showed why teams continue to keep him around. Injuries and limited major league opportunities have slowed his climb, yet the Orioles still view him as a usable option if they need pitching help later on. [Read more 🡒]