HOUSTON -- Third baseman Alex Bregman will hit free agency with a Gold Glove on his r¨¦sum¨¦. Bregman was named Sunday as the American League winner of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award at third base, which goes to the best defensive player in each league at the position.

Bregman, a first-time Gold Glove winner, joins five-time winner Doug Rader (1970-74 in the National League) as the only Astros third basemen to win the award. Bregman beat out finalists Ernie Clement of the Blue Jays and Jos¨¦ Ram¨ªrez of the Guardians.

The Astros¡¯ Mauricio Dub¨®n, a Gold Glove winner last year at the utility position, and center fielder Jake Meyers were also finalists, but didn¡¯t win.

¡°I just want to say ¡®Thank you¡¯ to every current and past coaches and teammates that have made this possible and especially, ¡®Thank you¡¯ to Ryan Barba, who we dreamed about this when we were taking ground balls at 15 years at the University of New Mexico,¡± Bregman told MLB.com ¡°I¡¯m pretty pumped and it¡¯s an honor to win, especially with such great nominees from the American League.¡±

Barba, the Major League field coordinator with the Padres, taught Bregman how to play infield while he was in high school in Albuquerque, N.M. Prior to his professional coaching debut, Barba was an assistant coach in 2011 and 2012 at the University of New Mexico. The middle infielder played four Minor League seasons with the Brewers (2006¨C07) and Braves (2009¨C10).

Bregman led AL third basemen in games (142), fielding percentage (.972), assists (242), total chances (355) and putouts (103). He was also tied for first in outs above average (six), tied for second in Defensive Runs Saved (six) and third in zone rating (.799).

Bregman, a cornerstone player on both the Astros¡¯ World Series championship teams (2017 and ¡®22), is one of the top free-agent position players on this year¡¯s market. The Astros are expected to make him an offer to try to keep him in Houston coming off a season in which he slashed .260/.315/.453 with 26 homers and 75 RBIs, including a .838 OPS from May 9 to the end of the season.

To determine the winners at the nine standard positions, the 30 MLB managers and up to six coaches from each team vote from a pool of players in their league, excluding players from their own team. These votes comprise 75% of the selection total, with the SABR Defensive Index counting for the other 25%.

For the utility position, Rawlings collaborated with SABR to create a specialized defensive formula separate from the traditional selection process.