Rays Pitcher Ryan Yarbrough has been nominated for Roberto Clemente Award

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Ryan Yarbrough has been named as the Tampa Bay Rays 2021 Major League Baseball nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, the most prestigious individual award for major league players, a Rays news release said.

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.

Every year, each team nominates a player to be considered for the award in tribute to Clemente’s achievements and character.

Yarbrough is one of the 30 club nominees for the annual award. Throughout his major league career, Yarbrough has established himself as a leader on the field and throughout the community. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he continued his work with Reading with the Rays by recording videos from home, encouraging kids to participate in the program and read for 24 hours over the summer. At the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, he and his wife, Nicole, made a generous donation to a local elementary school with 96 percent of the student body living at or below the poverty line. They donated school supplies, clothes, sanitizing items and food, fulfilling all the items on the school’s wish list.

He also matched Major League Baseball’s $7,500 donation to a charity of his choice and selected two organizations as the recipients of his Roberto Clemente Award donation: Boys & Girls Club of Suncoast and Boys & Girls Club of Tampa Bay. He will also provide 25 backpacks to each Boys & Girls Club, with school supplies and Rays items included. Due to the team being on the road during the league-wide celebration Wednesday, the Rays will celebrate Roberto Clemente Day and recognize Yarbrough and his philanthropic efforts in a pregame ceremony on the field prior to the game on Friday.

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. Fans can vote for the Roberto Clemente Award at mlb.com/clemente21. The site will feature bios of each nominee and will allow fans to vote until the end of the season on Oct. 3. The winner of the fan vote will count as one vote among those cast by the blue ribbon panel.

The concept of honoring 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.

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