Gold Glove shortstop Masyn Winn is finally playing his best baseball of the season -- both at the plate and with the glove -- and he has sparked a Cardinals club that has won six of its last nine games.
Totally unaware that he was playing on the three-year anniversary of his MLB debut, Cardinals’ shortstop Masyn Winn did a quick reflection to that memory and thought about how much he had progressed in terms of knowledge gained since that August night back in 2023.
A raw, 21-year-old at the time of his MLB debut, Winn thought he was ready for what he was about to face in the big leagues. But over a forgettable 37-game stretch of 2023, he quickly learned that he had miles to go before being fully ready for the rigors of MLB’s 162-game season and the highs and lows that accompany the journey.
“It meant everything,” Winn recalled of his 2023 MLB debut on Tuesday night to Cardinals TV after St. Louis beat the rival Reds 3-0 in Cincinnati. “You know, I actually didn’t even understand it at the time.”
Now 24 and playing his baseball of the season – both at the plate and in the field – Winn is far more aware of what it takes to thrive at the big-league level. He had his finest offensive performance of the season in Tuesday’s 3-0 victory over the Reds by smashing his fifth homer and cranking two doubles. It was the first time in his three-plus-year career that he’s had three extra-base hits in the same game. Also, he became the first Cardinals shortstop to do that since Tommy Edman on April 19, 2023.
"I didn’t even know about (the three-year anniversary of his MLB debut) until somebody in the stands said something about it,” said Winn, who was humbled by hitting just .172 in 37 games after being promoted from Triple-A at the end of the 2023 season for the Cards. “Obviously, it’s a special day and I’m glad I was able to perform well.”
The big offensive game also came a week after he drove in the game-winning run in the Cardinals’ 2-0 win over the Phillies last week at Busch Stadium. Though Winn’s offensive numbers have fallen far short of where he hoped they would be this season, he has often come through in the clutch for the Cards. Winn’s batting average (.261) and OPS (.693) with runners in scoring position are better than they are for the season (.241 and .646).
Winn improvements at the plate and his usual brilliance defensively helped to steady the Cardinals when they initially stumbled in mid-July. The Cardinals lost their first six series after the break for the MLB All-Star Game and the club set a season worst three-games below .500 on Aug. 1. However, since that date, the Cardinals have won 11 times in the past 16 games while taking series over the Yankees, Rockies, Phillies and Cubs.
More importantly, the Cardinals have won six of the last nine to pull within three games of the Padres for the No. 3 Wild Card slot. (The Cardinals own the tiebreaker over San Diego by virtue of their 4-3 edge in the season series.) Also, the Cards head into Wednesday night’s showdown against Reds ace Chase Burns at 4-2 on this pivotal three-city, 11-game road trip that still features a weekend stop in Philadelphia.
"Obviously, a lot of people counted us out early and we don't feel that way at all," Winn said of the Cardinals, who lost 12 of 16 after the All-Star break. "We feel great, every single day we're going to war and it's been fun with the boys."
The Cards have had fun watching Winn do his thing defensively at shortstop as he’s worked to dig his way out of a slow start. A first-time Gold Glove winner in 2025 when he committed just three errors in 501 chances, Winn hasn’t been nearly as surehanded in 2026 when he has committed eight errors in 510 chances. But he’s been a part of 86 double plays, and he has teamed up with standout rookie JJ Wetherholt to form a formidable defense up the middle.
Winn, who dazzled defensively during the weekend series against the Cubs, ranks seventh in MLB in Outs Above Average (14) and he’s been credited with 11 runs prevented, per Baseball Savant. Those figures put him second in the NL among shortstops to Dansby Swanson (16 OAA, 12 runs prevented). Swanson strained an oblique muscle against the Cardinals on Saturday and is expected to miss four-to-six weeks of action – something that could play a factor in Winn making a push toward another Gold Glove award.
“It’s every game, I feel like, that we’re talking about him making a play that the rest of the league just doesn’t make,” manager Oliver Marmol told Cardinals TV.
