COMSTOCK PARK, MI - Whitecaps shortstop Eugenio Suarez has earned one of the highest honors in Minor League Baseball. Suarez is one of nine Minor League Baseball players chosen as recipients of a 2012 Rawlings Gold Glove Award for defensive excellence. The awards were announced today by Minor League Baseball and Rawlings Sporting Goods Company, Inc.Suarez is the first Whitecap to win this prestigious award.

The 21-year-old from Edo Bolivar, Venezuela, played his first full season of professional baseball here in West Michigan in 2012. He played 119 games at shortstop and compiled a .971 fielding percentage (just 18 errors in 624 chances) at the position. The award honors him as the best defensive shortstop out of all 120 teams in the 10 domestic-based, full-season Minor Leagues.

Suarez, a Midwest League All-Star, is a rare slick-fielding shortstop who can also use a bat well. Offensively, he finished 10th in the MWL with a .288 batting average and second in the league with 147 hits, just one behind the leader. The switch hitter's breakout season now has him pegged as one of the top prospects in the Tigers' organization, and possibly the best middle-infield prospect in the system.

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