The New Town Pulse

November 1 was not a night the hobby was going to stop for. I loved it anyway.

Rawlings announced the 2026 Gold Gloves on ESPN. The Red Sox had three American League winners: Wilyer Abreu in right field, Ceddanne Rafaela in center, and Caleb Durbin at third. Boston and the Diamondbacks tied for the most on one club. It is the fifth time the Red Sox have had three Gold Glovers in a season, after 1968, 1979, 2011, and 2018.

Abreu and Rafaela are the part I keep coming back to. MLB.com calls them close friends, and they play like it. Nothing is supposed to land between them. They are the third set of outfield teammates to win Gold Gloves in consecutive seasons, after Barry Bonds and Andy Van Slyke with the Pirates from 1990 to 1992, and Dwight Evans and Fred Lynn with these Red Sox in 1978 and 1979.

Abreu is 27, and this is his third straight Gold Glove, covering 2024, 2025, and 2026. He is the sixth Red Sox player to win three in a row, after Frank Malzone, Carl Yastrzemski, Fred Lynn, Dwight Evans, and Mookie Betts. The club's announcement has the counting: he led every player in the majors, at any position, with 28 defensive runs saved. Among right fielders he led the majors in assists (13), starts (153), and innings (1,357). His arm sat in the 98th percentile at 95.3 mph. He also won the 2026 Fielding Bible Award in right field. The other finalists were Nathan Lukes of Toronto and Cam Smith of Houston.

Rafaela is 26, and this is his second straight Gold Glove in center, 2025 and 2026. He played center field exclusively for the first time. He led major-league center fielders with 21 defensive runs saved, and led American League center fielders in assists (8), outs above average (16), and fielding run value (16). He is the first player with back-to-back AL center-field Gold Gloves since Kevin Kiermaier in 2015 and 2016. It is also his second straight Fielding Bible Award in center. He beat Steven Kwan and Evan Carter, as the Boston Globe reported.

Durbin, 26, took his first. He led AL third basemen with 13 defensive runs saved and 7 outs above average, and led major-league third basemen in double plays (31) and assists (282). He is only the second Red Sox third baseman to win a Gold Glove, after Frank Malzone.

I love both outfielders as a collector, and I am not confused about what the hobby does with nights like this. A diving catch and a 95 mph throw do not move the hobby the way a home-run chase does. Defense rarely does. It still earns respect from people who actually watch the games, and that is the part I want on the record. Abreu in right, Rafaela in center, the wall behind them, and a friend on either side. That is a Red Sox outfield worth remembering whether or not a parallel ever notices.