Twins first baseman Carlos Santana wins first Gold Glove of his career

There hasn’t been much to cheer about with the Minnesota Twins, especially with how the season ended. A historic collapse in September cast a shadow over everything the team did, but it doesn’t erase some of the fantastic baseball that some players on the team turned in this year.

Chief among those guys is Carlos Santana.

He was brought in to provide some power to the lineup, which he did to a certain extent, but it ended up being his glove that helped Minnesota out the most. Santana was so good defensively that he can now call his 2024 season award-winning, as he collected the first Gold Glove of his career on Sunday.

Santana becomes the first Twins player to win a Gold Glove since Byron Buxton and Brian Dozier collected theirs back in 2017. Doug Mientkiewicz was the last first baseman to win a Gold Glove for Minnesota, something that happened all the way back in 2001; Santana is just the third first baseman in Twins history to win a Gold Glove, joining Mientkiewicz and Earl Battey.

Carlos Santana winning a Gold Glove should encourage the Twins to re-sign him

Santana was a finalist for a Gold Glove at first base alongside Baltimore’s Ryan Mountcastle and Texas’ Nathanial Lowe, but he was in a different class than both of them. He was seven times better in Runs Prevented this season than Mountcastle and twice as good as Lowe in that department, posting a 14 OAA on the year.

With his first Gold Glove secured, now comes the question of whether or not he’ll be at Target Field to celebrate with Twins fans when he receives his hardware. Santana is a free agent this offseason after signing a one-year deal last February, and Minnesota has a pretty clear need for him at first base.

Alex Kirilloff made the stunning decision to retire at the age of 26, which vacates first base for next year and beyond. The Twins don’t have a sure-fire replacement for him, but Santana seemingly fits the bill if the team wants to re-sign him.

That’s the key quesiton, as money issues have dictated Minnesota’s plans over the last year and handcuffed the front office from being able to makin moves that make the team better. Bringing back Santana helps fill a need, but the frugalness of the franchise might lead them to let him walk and forge ahead by trying Jose Miranda or Edouard Julien there.

It’s risk to bring Santana back, as he’ll be 39 years old next season and there’s a chance he regresses. Re-signing him is a much safer option than it might be argued, though, as the familiarity he brings helps in addition to the offense and award-winning defense he provides.

Whether the Twins bring him back is up in the air, but what is undeniable is how great of a season Santana had in Minnesota and how well he’ll be remembered for his time with the team.

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