With the 2025 Major League Baseball regular season winding down, all 30 clubs have announced their nominees for the Roberto Clemente Award. The honor recognizes extraordinary character, philanthropy, and community involvement on and off the field. This year’s ballot again reflects baseball’s global reach, with several nominees born outside the United States. Francisco Lindor and José Berríos hail from Puerto Rico, Pablo López from Venezuela, Bo Naylor from Canada, Liam Hendriks from Australia, and Brendan Donovan — born in Würzburg, Germany, while his father was serving in the U.S. Army — round out the list. López, whose philanthropy with children’s hospitals has become a defining part of his career, is featured as this year’s international face of the award.
According to MLB.com, “The list of nominees for the 2025 Roberto Clemente Award features players whose various community and philanthropic activities have focused on important issues, ranging from awareness and fundraising, to support those with cancer and other illnesses or special needs, education for young people, natural disaster relief, and outreach to underserved children and communities in the United States and abroad.”
Clemente, the first Latin-born player to be inducted into Cooperstown, was a humanitarian who always gave back to his native Puerto Rico during his 18 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He passed away on December 31, 1972, when he was on a Douglas DC-7 cargo plane that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico, while heading to Managua, Nicaragua, to deliver relief supplies after the massive earthquake on December 23, 1972.
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America held a special election for the National Baseball Hall of Fame on March 20, 1973, and the committee voted to waive the waiting period for Clemente due to the circumstances of his death. The BBWAA posthumously elected him for induction into the Hall of Fame, giving him 393 out of 424 available votes, for 92.7% of the vote. He was inducted with Billy Evans, Monte Irvin, George Kelly, Warren Spahn, and Mickey Welch as the 1973 Hall of Fame Class.
Hall of Famer Willie Mays was the first player to be nominated for the Roberto Clemente Award in 1971, prior to Clemente’s final season in 1972, when Brooks Robinson won the award after the Say Hey Kid.
There have been 20 Hall of Famers who have won the Roberto Clemente Award since 1971, including Al Kaline in 1973, Willie Stargell in 1974, Lou Brock in 1975, Rod Carew in 1977, Phil Niekro in 1980, Gary Carter in 1989, Cal Ripken Jr. in 1992, Barry Larkin in 1993, Dave Winfield in 1994, Ozzie Smith in 1995, Kirby Puckett in 1996, Tony Gwynn in 1999, Jim Thome in 2002, Edgar Martinez in 2005, Craig Biggio in 2007, Derek Jeter in 2009, and David Ortiz in 2011.
The only other players from Puerto Rico besides Martinez who have won the Roberto Clemente Award are Carlos Delgado in 2006, Carlos Beltrán in 2013, and Yadier Molina in 2018.
Carew was the first international-born player, from the Gatún, Panama Canal Zone, to win the Roberto Clemente Award, and there would not be another international-born winner until Sammy Sosa in 1998.
Other international-born players who have won the Roberto Clemente Award include Albert Pujols in 2008, Nelson Cruz in 2021, and Carlos Carrasco in 2019.
Last year there were six international-born players who were nominees for the 2024 Roberto Clemente Award: Jesús Luzardo of the Miami Marlins, Freddy Peralta of the Milwaukee Brewers, Salvador Pérez of the Kansas City Royals, Pablo López of the Minnesota Twins, Liam Hendriks of the Boston Red Sox, and Francisco Lindor of the New York Mets.
This year, Lindor and López return as nominees for the 2025 Roberto Clemente Award. They are joined by José Berríos of the Toronto Blue Jays from Bayamón, Puerto Rico; Bo Naylor of the Cleveland Guardians from Mississauga, Canada; Liam Hendriks of the Boston Red Sox from Perth, Australia; and Brendan Donovan of the St. Louis Cardinals from Würzburg, Germany.
With the 2026 World Baseball Classic approaching, and the 265 international-born players who made their mark on Opening Day of the 2025 season, the Dominican Republic led with 100 players, followed by Puerto Rico (16), Canada (13), Japan (12), Mexico (11), Curaçao (4), Panama (4), South Korea (3), Aruba (2, its first time with multiple players on Opening Day rosters), Australia (2), Colombia (2), and one each from the Bahamas, Germany, Honduras, Nicaragua, and South Africa. MLB concludes from its data that U.S.-born players make up 27.8% of the pool of 954 players, alongside 779 active 26-man roster players and 173 Major League players on injured, restricted, or suspended lists as of March 27. [World Baseball Network link]
The 2026 World Baseball Classic will have Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as one of its locations for Pool A, and it will be the fourth time the venue has hosted the event, having previously done so in 2006, 2009, and 2013.
Host nation Puerto Rico will play Colombia, Canada, Panama, and Cuba in the 2026 WBC from March 6–11.
The 2025 Roberto Clemente Award will be announced during the 2025 World Series.
2025 Roberto Clemente Award Nominees
Corbin Carroll (Arizona Diamondbacks)
Griffin Conine (Miami Marlins)
Lawrence Butler (Athletics)
Sal Frelick (Milwaukee Brewers)
Spencer Strider (Atlanta Braves)
Pablo López (Minnesota Twins)
Jordan Westburg (Baltimore Orioles)
Francisco Lindor (New York Mets)
Liam Hendriks (Boston Red Sox)
Carlos Rodón (New York Yankees)
Kyle Tucker (Chicago Cubs)
Aaron Nola (Philadelphia Phillies)
Mike Tauchman (Chicago White Sox)
Paul Skenes (Pittsburgh Pirates)
Brent Suter (Cincinnati Reds)
Joe Musgrove (San Diego Padres)
Bo Naylor (Cleveland Guardians)
Ryan Walker (San Francisco Giants)
Kyle Freeland (Colorado Rockies)
J.P. Crawford (Seattle Mariners)
Tarik Skubal (Detroit Tigers)
Brendan Donovan (St. Louis Cardinals)
Josh Hader (Houston Astros)
Pete Fairbanks (Tampa Bay Rays)
Bobby Witt Jr. (Kansas City Royals)
Corey Seager (Texas Rangers)
Logan O’Hoppe (Los Angeles Angels)
José Berríos (Toronto Blue Jays)
Mookie Betts (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Trevor Williams (Washington Nationals)
The Roberto Clemente Documentary will debut on the History Channel on September 23 at 8 p.m. EDT, following its theatrical debut on September 12.
