ST. PETERSBURG -- The Rays have been saying for years that Taylor Walls is the best defensive shortstop in baseball.
While the industry has appreciated his glovework for a long time, Walls started to receive national recognition for his glovework during the Rays’ run to the World Series. Now, he has the hardware to prove it, too.
Walls on Sunday earned the first Rawlings Gold Glove Award of his career, an overdue honor that made him the first Rays player to win a Gold Glove at shortstop.
“I feel like we've known and we've been kind of pounding the table for many years on how special he is defensively,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said when Walls was named a finalist for the award. “I'm proud of him and happy that he's getting the recognition, because he deserves it.”
Walls was an American League Gold Glove finalist at shortstop in 2025 and as a utility player in ’23, but he didn’t win either time. As much as that may have frustrated him in the moment, he said during the ALCS that he “kind of learned to be more level-headed about it.”
That didn’t mean the hyper-competitive Walls stopped wanting to win, though.
“If I did win, it would be awesome,” Walls said last month. “It'd be something that I looked forward to doing when I was younger and dreamed of as a kid.”
Walls is the first Rays infielder to win a Gold Glove Award since third baseman Evan Longoria in 2017 and Tampa Bay’s first winner at any position since 2019, when Kevin Kiermaier brought home the last of the three he received during his time with the Rays.
That feels appropriate, because Walls has been viewed as the infield equivalent of Kiermaier -- someone Tampa Bay might appreciate more than most due to the club’s long-held emphasis on run prevention.
Critics will look at Walls’ offensive statistics and question why he’s in the lineup on a near-daily basis. He slashed .222/.309/.298 with two homers, 36 RBIs and 21 stolen bases this season, and his career slash line over six seasons is just .200/.291/.298.
But according to Baseball-Reference’s calculation of wins above replacement, Walls was the fourth-most valuable player on the American League champions’ roster this season behind Junior Caminero, Drew Rasmussen and Nick Martinez.
Why? His defense was just that good.
Walls is oddly undervalued by some defensive statistics, like the Statcast-based fielding run value, which graded him as the 65th-best defender at shortstop this past season with a minus-2 FRV, and 33rd in outs above average at minus-3.
But even some of the most advanced metrics can’t appreciate the elite anticipation, instincts and positioning that make Walls such a special defender. As third-base coach Brady Williams once told MLB.com, “He’s moved toward where the ball is being hit before the ball is being hit.”
That is reflected in a Statcast metric called “estimated success rate,” which considers how much distance a player needs to cover and how much time he has to do it at the time the pitch is released. Walls and Pirates shortstop Konnor Griffin led the Majors in that figure this season, but the top four marks dating back to 2022 belong to … Walls, Walls, Walls and Walls.
“He’s the best at doing it in all of baseball,” bench coach Rodney Linares told MLB.com earlier this season. “I’ve never seen anybody like Wallsy.”
Other statistics show a more appropriate level of appreciation for Walls, who was also the 2026 Fielding Bible Award winner at shortstop.
The 30-year-old was tied for third among all Major League defenders in defensive runs saved, with 21. No other shortstop surpassed 10 DRS, meaning Walls recorded twice as many runs saved as the second-best defender at his position.
“There’s some public metrics out there that don't necessarily see the impact that Taylor makes on the game, but he's one of the smartest dudes I've ever played with,” starter Griffin Jax said during the postseason. “And the way he's positioning himself in the infield, the way he's taking that little jump-step to get to the ball as quick as possible, it's just really impressive and it's fun to watch.”
Chandler Simpson was the Rays’ only other Gold Glove finalist but lost out to Yankees left fielder Cody Bellinger. But the fact that he was even considered spoke volumes about the incredible strides the speedy Simpson took in the outfield this year.
“I think that is maybe one of the coolest stories of our season, where he was defensively last year, where he's come to this year,” Cash said. “I give Chandler all the credit, but if you're going to look at the help along the way, [first base/outfield coach] Corey Dickerson has been right by his side.”