DAVENPORT, IOWA (November 15, 2021) — Minor League Baseball™ and Rawlings Sporting Goods Company Inc have announced the nine recipients of the 2021 Rawlings Gold Glove Award® for defensive excellence. Quad Cities River Bandits’ in-fielder Michael Massey earned his first career Gold Glove after being selected as the top defensive second-baseman among players in the eleven full-season Minor Leagues. With the honor, Massey also becomes the first player in Quad Cities baseball history to win a Gold Glove Award.
Massey led all minor league second basemen with a career-best .989 fielding percentage over 81 games (78 starts) in the field and committed three errors in 284 total chances. The 2021 Postseason All-Star also helped the High-A Central champion River Bandits turn 86 double plays, which tied for the league lead.
After being drafted in the fourth round by the Kansas City Royals in the 2019 MLB Draft, Massey owns a .982 career fielding percentage and has totaled seven errors in 907.2 innings (394 chances) across two professional seasons.
2021 Rawlings Minor League Gold Glove Award® Winners
C — Adley Rutschman (Bowie, Norfolk - Baltimore)
1B — Nick Prato (Northwest Arkansas, Omaha – Kansas City)
2B — Michael Massey (Quad Cities – Kansas City)
3B — Jared Triolo (Greensboro – Pittsburgh)
SS — Jose Tena (Lake County – Cleveland)
OF — Christian Pache (Gwinnett – Atlanta)
OF — Brenton Doyle (Spokane – Colorado)
OF — Mike Harris II (Rome – Atlanta)
P — Drey Jameson (Hillsboro, Amarillo – Arizona)
ABOUT THE BANDITS: The 2021 season marked the River Bandits’ first year as the High-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. The River Bandits anchor the Quad Cities’ sports-market, which The Sports Business Journal named the top minor-league sports-market in the country in 2015 and second-best minor-league market in its 2017 follow-up ranking. In 2015, 2017, and again in 2019, the River Bandits earned Ballpark Digest’s award for “Best Charitable Works” in Minor League Baseball, the only club to win that coveted award three times. For more information, visit www.riverbandits.com or contact General Manager Joe Kubly at (563) 333-2768.
