NC State Baseball

Former NC State All-American Patrick Bailey Earns Back-to-Back Gold Gloves

Published

3 weeks ago

November 10, 2025

Former NC State All-American Catcher Patrick Bailey was a National League Gold Glove winner, earning the honor now in back-to-back seasons.

Catcher: Patrick Bailey, Giants

Bailey is among the elite defensive catchers in the game, particularly when it comes to framing — the Giants’ backstop led all catchers by a large margin with +25 framing runs last season, according to Statcast. He also ranked among the top three percent of catchers in Caught Stealing Above Average (+8, 97th percentile) and pop time (1.86, 99th). His 19 DRS also led all backstops in 2025.

The award is Bailey’s second after he won it in 2024, as well. He is the first Giants catcher to win multiple Gold Gloves in his career — the only others who have won the honor are Buster Posey (2016), Mike Matheny (2005) and Kirt Manwaring (1993).

(MLB)

Bailey’s triumph came as no surprise, as he continued to burnish his reputation as the best defensive catcher in MLB by picking up his second consecutive Gold Glove.

Known for his elite pitch framing and his strong arm behind the plate, Bailey led MLB catchers with +19 defensive runs saved in 2025 and also ranked first in the Majors with a +31 fielding run value — nine points higher than Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk and Red Sox outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela, who tied for second with +22.

The 26-year-old Bailey is the first Giants catcher to earn multiple Gold Gloves and the first National League backstop to win in back-to-back years since Molina won eight straight from 2008-15. He also was named the 2025 Fielding Bible Defensive Player of the Year, as well as the top defensive catcher in MLB, by Sports Info Solutions on Oct 23.

“To this day, he’s always trying to get better,” Webb said. “He cares a lot. He wants to be the best defender in baseball. He wants to be known as the guy who’s the best defender in baseball. He takes a lot of pride in that. Seeing the work he put in, that’s the type of guy he is. He wants to be the best.”

(Giants)

As the Wolfpack’s catcher, Bailey earned ACC Rookie of the Year, Second Team All-ACC, and Freshman All-American honors in 2018, as well as First Team All-ACC and Third Team All-American honors in 2019 (Collegiate Baseball). He finished his three-year career at NC State with a .318 batting average and a 1.050 OPS.

Bailey was selected but the San Francisco Giants with the 13th overall pick in the 1st Round of the 2020 MLB Draft.