These guys flash the leather like nobody else. Now they’ve earned their hardware as the top defensive prospects in baseball.
Three Top 100 prospects — including baseball’s top overall prospect — headlined the nine-player crop of 2025 Minor League Gold Glove Award winners, Rawlings and Minor League Baseball announced Sunday. Pirates shortstop Konnor Griffin (No. 1 overall prospect), Cardinals catcher Leonardo Bernal (MLB No. 92) and Marlins lefty Robby Snelling (MLB No. 51) were the Top 100 guys to snag gold at their respective positions, along with six other players ranked on their organization’s Top 30 lists.
Griffin, the ninth overall pick in the 2024, catapulted himself to the top of the top prospects list with a sensational debut season spread across three levels. A double-plus runner with a double-plus arm, Griffin’s athleticism helped him to excel at both shortstop and center field. But he collected his hardware as a shortstop, where he posted a .980 fielding percentage and was only charged with seven errors in 89 games.
A Padres first-round pick in 2022 out of the Nevada prep ranks, the 21-year-old Snelling turned a corner in his first full season in the Marlins organization, pitching to a 1.27 ERA in 11 starts at Triple-A to finish the year. He did not commit an error in 136 innings of work and was adept at controlling the running game — opposing basestealers only had a 57 percent success rate against the southpaw in stolen-base attempts. This is the second straight year Miami had a top prospect on this list, after Snelling’s batterymate, Joe Mack (MLB No. 70) nabbed Gold Glove honors at catcher in 2024.
This year, that honor went to the 21-year-old Bernal, the switch-hitting backstop who looks like the Cardinals’ catcher of the future. Bernal came into his own defensively this season behind the plate, building on the previous strides in blocking and framing and solidifying himself as one of the Minors’ best throwers. He threw out 27 of 69 attempting basestealers, good for an elite 39 percent caught-stealing rate, second-best among backstops at Double-A.
The other ranked prospects to claim Gold Glove honors were Triple-A Durham first baseman Tre’ Morgan, High-A Cedar Rapids second baseman Kyle DeBarge, Double-A Knoxville third baseman Pedro Ramirez, Double-A Biloxi outfielder Luis Lara, High-A Hillsboro center fielder Druw Jones and Double-A Montgomery outfielder Homer Bush Jr.
Here is the full list of 2025 Minor League Gold Glove winners:
C: Leonardo Bernal (STL No. 4/MLB No. 92), Springfield (AA)
1B: Tre’ Morgan (TB No. 7), Durham (AAA)
2B: Kyle DeBarge (MIN No. 11), Cedar Rapids (A+)
3B: Pedro Ramirez (CHC No. 8), Knoxville (AA)
SS: Konnor Griffin (PIT No. 1/MLB No. 1), Bradenton (A), Greensboro (A+), Altoona (AA)
OF: Luis Lara (MIL No. 12), Biloxi (AA)
OF: Druw Jones (AZ No. 14), Hillsboro (A+)
OF: Homer Bush Jr. (TB No. 23), Montgomery (AA)
P: Robby Snelling (MIA No. 3/MLB No. 51), Pensacola (AA), Jacksonville (AAA)
