Masyn Winn’s Great 2025 Isn’t Being Talked About Enough

In fact, one of the first times he went viral was when he unleashed a 100 mph throw across the diamond in the 2022 Futures Game. A highlight that became somewhat controversial when MLB veteran Justin Turner blasted the play and said that it was going to lead to “a bunch of errors.”

Ironic.

But by 2023, Masyn Winn was a consensus top-50 prospect in the game who worked his way up to an MLB debut in August to minimal success (.467 OPS in 137 PA).

However, his first full season in 2024 was a massive success: 15 homers, slightly above-average offense overall, and awesome work with the glove, which resulted in a 3.5 fWAR and 4.9 bWAR. 

But to be fair to Turner, Winn did make 18 errors in 2024, 10 of which were of the throwing variety. 

So maybe the old man’s grievances with the cloud were correct? Well, not so fast.

Masyn Winn’s 2025

Masyn Winn’s 2025 season was genuinely historic.

He played 129 games, 1,107 innings, and had 501 defensive chances at shortstop. Despite that, he only made THREE ERRORS.

Yes, only three, meaning he had an absurd .994 fielding percentage. 

For context, this was tied with Cal Ripken Jr. (1990) and Omar Vizquel (2000) for the fewest errors by a full-time major league shortstop, per MLB.com research.

Only Mike Bordick in 2002 finished a qualified full season at the position with just one error. He only played 117 games and 1,007.2 innings, perhaps not enough to meet MLB’s threshold for a “full-time” shortstop for the above-mentioned stat.

Although Bordick’s season somehow did not result in a Gold Glove, Winn’s thankfully did. 

Of course, fielding percentage is not everything. Good fielders can have more errors simply because they put themselves in a position to attempt harder plays more frequently.

However, in 2025, Winn also had an incredible +21 outs above average, a mark only outdone at the shortstop position by Bobby Witt Jr. 

But let’s circle back to Winn’s words from the beginning:

“If I have to go make a play, adrenaline just takes over. And then I’ve got to deal with the repercussions for five or 10 minutes after that. But I feel like I don’t think it’s hurting me too badly.”

Masyn Winn had this historic Gold Glove-winning season with a torn meniscus, and while he is downplaying its effect, I just think that is him being tough. 

Knowing the pain you are going to endure by working through something and continuing to do it at an almost unprecedented rate is just crazy, and it becomes even crazier when you actually look at the errors. 

Error Audit

Error 1: May 30. Sam Haggerty simply caught Winn by surprise on an infield he hadn’t played an MLB game on yet. 

Error 2: June 19. Winn makes a nice spinning snag up the middle, but with Willson Contreras missing the catch, a run would score, and Winn would get the E6. 

Error 3: August 19. This Xavier Edwards grounder took a funky hop, and Winn could not secure it cleanly.

Interestingly enough, this one was originally called a hit and retroactively labelled an error. 

So yes, these are errors. However, I feel like these are simply things that are bound to happen when you take everyday reps at short. 

Winn struggled down the stretch offensively, although you could blame some of that on the knee injury. He had a .788 OPS at the end of May, but a .611 OPS the rest of the way.

Regardless, Winn’s toughness and near-perfection defensively definitely deserve more praise, and I am very excited to see what he can do in a hopefully healthy 2026 season.