Orioles third baseman Manny Machado won the 2015 American League Rawlings Gold Glove Award on Tuesday night.
The 23-year-old won for the second time in his career, edging fellow finalists Adrian Beltre of Texas and Evan Longoria of Tampa Bay. Machado claimed the award as the only player in the majors to play all 162 regular-season games, showing his surgically-repaired knees were healthy with numerous spectacular plays in 2015.
Machado led all AL third basemen in total chances (488), double plays (38), range factor per nine innings (3.09), and range factor per game (3.01), and he finished second in defensive runs saved (14) to only Beltre (18). Though he committed a career-high 21 errors — 19 at the hot corner and two at shortstop — Machado made nine in the first 38 games of the season and just 12 the rest of the way.
In winning his second Gold Glove Award in three years, Machado becomes just the second Orioles third baseman to win multiple times, joining the incomparable Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson and his 16 Gold Gloves.
Despite a sizable defensive drop-off in team defense from 2014 to 2015, the Orioles have now won at least one Gold Glove in each of the last five seasons, which is the second-longest streak in club history. Over that time, five different Orioles have won a combined 12 Gold Gloves.
Since the award was created in 1957, 17 different Orioles have claimed a total of 71 Gold Gloves, the most for any AL club and the second most in the majors behind only the St. Louis Cardinals.
