MLB Gold Glove Awards 2023: Full List of Winners and Reaction

Major League Baseball kicked off its 2023 award season on Sunday night with the announcement of the Gold Glove winners in the American and National Leagues.

The newly-crowned World Series champion Texas Rangers had five finalists, tied with the Toronto Blue Jays for most by a team.

Among the key storylines coming into the announcement was the guarantee that this would be the first time since 2012 that someone other than Nolan Arenado was going to be named the NL's best defender at third base.

The St. Louis Cardinals star wasn't one of the finalists at the position for the first time in his MLB career. Chase Headley was the last NL third baseman to win a Gold Glove before Arenado's 10-year run began.

Winners are determined by a combination of voting from managers and coaches, as well as the SABR Defensive Index. All 30 MLB managers and up to six coaches from each team cast a vote for a pool of players from their league, excluding players from their own team.

The manager/coach vote counts for 75 percent of the vote total. The SABR Defensive Index makes up the remaining 25 percent of the vote.

Here's the full list of 2023 MLB Gold Glove winners:

American League

C: Jonah Heim, Texas Rangers

1B: Nathaniel Lowe, Texas Rangers

2B: Andrés Giménez, Cleveland Guardians

3B: Matt Chapman, Toronto Blue Jays

SS: Anthony Volpe, New York Yankees

LF: Steven Kwan, Cleveland Guardians

CF: Kevin Kiermaier, Toronto Blue Jays

RF: Adolis García, Texas Rangers

P: José Berríos, Toronto Blue Jays

Utility: Mauricio Dubón, Houston Astros

National League

C: Gabriel Moreno, Arizona Diamondbacks

1B: Christian Walker, Arizona Diamondbacks

2B: Nico Hoerner, Chicago Cubs

3B: Ke'Bryan Hayes, Pittsburgh Pirates

SS: Dansby Swanson, Chicago Cubs

LF: Ian Happ, Chicago Cubs

CF: Brenton Doyle, Colorado Rockies

RF: Fernando Tatis Jr., San Diego Padres

P: Zack Wheeler, Philadelphia Phillies

Utility: Ha-Seong Kim, San Diego Padres

The Blue Jays and Rangers both had three winners from their five nominees. The Chicago Cubs led the NL with three winners, followed by the National League champion Arizona Diamondbacks with two.

Texas first baseman Nathaniel Lowe's Gold Glove had one of the biggest single-season defensive turnarounds of any player in MLB to earn the prize at first base.

After a historic postseason run that saw him earn ALCS MVP honors, García earned his first career Gold Glove for his work in right field.

The Rangers star beat out Kyle Tucker of the Houston Astros and Alex Verdugo of the Boston Red Sox. His four outs above average was better than Verdugo (one) and Tucker (minus-six).

While there weren't a lot of things that went right for the San Diego Padres in 2023 after their offseason spending spree, one of the best decisions they made was making Fernando Tatis Jr. their starting right fielder.

Tatis' first full season in the outfield was incredible and culminated with him beating out six-time Gold Glove winner Mookie Betts and Lane Thomas for the award. He led all players in defensive runs saved (29) and UZR (13.8).

It's also a stark contrast from what Tatis' defense was like at shortstop. He ranked 18th out of 23 players at the position with at least 2,000 innings in defensive runs saved from 2019 to '21.

One shortstop who continues to be great with the glove is Dansby Swanson. After winning his first career Gold Glove last season as a member of the Atlanta Braves, he repeated this year in his first season with the Chicago Cubs.

The race for the best defensive shortstop in the NL was one of the most compelling among all position groups. Swanson, Francisco Lindor and Ezequiel Tovar were tied in Baseball Info Solutions' infield range runs above average metric that measures a player's performance based on when the ball is hit and when the fielder gets to it or is unable to corral it.

Lindor had a significant advantage in UZR (9.1) over Swanson (5.9) and Tovar (2.4), while Swanson led the trio with 18 defensive runs saved, compared to 13 for Tovar and seven for Lindor.

The New York Yankees had their first Gold Glove winner at shortstop since Derek Jeter in 2010. Anthony Volpe was given the honor over Carlos Correa and World Series MVP Corey Seager.

Seager had the edge over both of his competitors in UZR (4.8), but Volpe ranked second among all AL shortstops in defensive runs saved (15). The 22-year-old also had the best range of any player at the position in MLB.

While the Cleveland Guardians had all of sorts of issues trying to score runs this season, their run-prevention skills remain among the best in MLB.

The Guardians had two repeat winners with Steven Kwan (left field) and Andrés Giménez (second base) taking home hardware.

Giménez has established himself as one of the best defensive players regardless of position in MLB. He was the only AL player with at least 20 defensive runs saved (23) and ranked first in outs above average (18) and runs prevented (14).