BASEBALL’S MOST PHILANTHROPIC AND HUMANITARIAN PLAYERS RECOGNIZED AS 2020 ROBERTO CLEMENTE AWARD NOMINEES

Nominees for Prestigious Award Will Be Recognized on Roberto Clemente Day, Wednesday, September 9^th, the League-Wide Celebration of Hall of Famer’s Legacy

Fans Can Read About Players’ Community Efforts and Vote

Through the End of the 2020 Regular Season at MLB.com/clemente21

 

The 30 Club nominees for the 2020 Roberto Clemente Award, baseball’s most prestigious individual honor for Major Leaguers, feature some of the game’s most philanthropic and humanitarian players, including 14 first-time nominees. The Roberto Clemente Award is the annual recognition of a Major League player who best represents the game of baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field. The nominees will be officially recognized on Wednesday, September 9^th, marking the 19^th annual Roberto Clemente Day, which was established by Major League Baseball to honor the late Hall of Famer’s legacy as a humanitarian.

The 30 Club nominees of the 2020 Roberto Clemente Award are listed below:

 

Arizona Diamondbacks – Eduardo Escobar

Atlanta Braves – Freddie Freeman

Baltimore Orioles – Hanser Alberto

Boston Red Sox – Mitch Moreland

Chicago Cubs – Jason Heyward

Chicago White Sox – Tim Anderson

Cincinnati Reds – Tucker Barnhart

Cleveland Indians – Brad Hand

Colorado Rockies – Ian Desmond

Detroit Tigers – Miguel Cabrera

Houston Astros – Alex Bregman

Kansas City Royals – Ian Kennedy

Los Angeles Angels – Mike Trout

Los Angeles Dodgers – Justin Turner

Miami Marlins – Miguel Rojas

Milwaukee Brewers – Brent Suter

Minnesota Twins – Nelson Cruz

New York Mets – Steven Matz

New York Yankees – Giancarlo Stanton

Oakland Athletics – Tony Kemp

Philadelphia Phillies – Aaron Nola

Pittsburgh Pirates – Josh Bell

San Diego Padres – Drew Pomeranz

San Francisco Giants – Hunter Pence

Seattle Mariners – Dee Strange-Gordon

St. Louis Cardinals – Adam Wainwright

Tampa Bay Rays – Charlie Morton

Texas Rangers – Shin-Soo Choo

Toronto Blue Jays – Danny Jansen

Washington Nationals – Sean Doolittle   

*NOTE: due to the adjusted 2020 Regular Season, Clubs were permitted to nominate players on restricted lists and/or if they were otherwise traded or designated for assignment.*

More information can be found at MLB.com/clemente21.

As part of the annual program, each MLB Club nominates one player to be considered for the league-wide Award in tribute to Clemente’s achievements and character. This year’s list of nominees features players whose various community and philanthropic activities have focused on important causes such as COVID-19 relief, social justice initiatives, supporting those with cancer and other illnesses or special needs, outreach to underserved children & communities in the United States and abroad, environmental advocacy, and more.

On Roberto Clemente Day, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Club for which Roberto played his entire Hall of Fame career, was granted permission to have all players, managers and coaches wear Roberto’s “21” on their uniforms. Throughout the league, Roberto Clemente Day logo will appear on the bases and official dugout lineup cards and a special tribute video will be played in ballparks. Additional social media content supporting Roberto’s legacy and recognizing the impact of the late Vera Clemente, who served as MLB’s Goodwill Ambassador, will be featured throughout the day.

The league-wide winner of the Roberto Clemente Award will be selected via a blue ribbon panel, including  Baseball Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr., representatives from MLB-affiliated networks (MLB Network, FOX Sports, ESPN and TBS), MLB.com, as well as Roberto’s children, Enrique, Luis and Roberto Clemente, Jr. Beginning today, fans can vote for the Roberto Clemente Award via mlb.com/clemente21. The site will feature bios of each of the nominees and will allow fans to vote until the end of the season on Sunday, September 27^th. The winner of the fan vote will count as one vote among those cast by the blue ribbon panel.

The concept of honoring Major League players for their philanthropic work was created in 1971 as the “Commissioner’s Award.” The recognition was renamed to the “Roberto Clemente Award” in 1973 in honor of the Hall of Famer and 15-time All-Star who died in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve 1972 while attempting to deliver supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

The distinguished list of past Roberto Clemente Award winners includes 19 members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame:

1971	Willie Mays+**	1981	Steve Garvey	1991	Harold Reynolds	2001	Curt Schilling	2011	David Ortiz
1972	Brooks Robinson+**	1982	Ken Singleton	1992	Cal Ripken, Jr.+	2002	Jim Thome+	2012	Clayton Kershaw
1973	Al Kaline+	1983	Cecil Cooper	1993	Barry Larkin+	2003	Jamie Moyer	2013	Carlos Beltrán
1974	Willie Stargell+	1984	Ron Guidry	1994	Dave Winfield+	2004	Edgar Martinez+	2014	Paul Konerko*
1975	Lou Brock+	1985	Don Baylor	1995	Ozzie Smith+	2005	John Smoltz+	2014	Jimmy Rollins*
1976	Pete Rose	1986	Garry Maddox	1996	Kirby Puckett+	2006	Carlos Delgado	2015	Andrew McCutchen
1977	Rod Carew+	1987	Rick Sutcliffe	1997	Eric Davis	2007	Craig Biggio+	2016	Curtis Granderson
1978	Greg Luzinski	1988	Dale Murphy	1998	Sammy Sosa	2008	Albert Pujols	2017	Anthony Rizzo
1979	Andre Thornton	1989	Gary Carter+	1999	Tony Gwynn+	2009	Derek Jeter+	2018	Yadier Molina
1980	Phil Niekro+	1990	Dave Stewart	2000	Al Leiter	2010	Tim Wakefield	2019	Carlos Carrasco