Taylor Rogers named winner of Twins' 2021 Carl R. Pohlad Award for Outstanding Community Service
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL, MN – The Minnesota Twins today announced that All-Star reliever Taylor Rogers is the winner of the 2021 Carl R. Pohlad Award for Outstanding Community Service. The award is given annually to recognize the community involvement and leadership of a current Minnesota Twins player or coach, as voted upon by the Twins Community Fund Board of Directors. Rogers will be honored on the field prior to tonight’s 2021 home finale against the Detroit Tigers at Target Field, and again later this winter as part of the 17th annual Diamond Awards benefitting research, education and care in brain, nerve and muscle disorders at the University of Minnesota.
Rogers, a left-handed pitcher who was selected by Minnesota in the 11th round of the 2012 First-Year Player Draft and was named to the 2021 American League All-Star team in his sixth major league season, grew up dreaming of becoming a firefighter like the four generations of his family before him. While his mound skills led him on a different career path, Rogers has maintained strong connections to his family’s longtime profession; in 2018, Taylor co-founded the nonprofit Rogers Family Foundation, which is committed to providing funds for, and raising awareness around, mental wellness for first responders in his home state of Colorado and his second home of Minnesota. In addition to the Foundation’s financial support for counseling sessions and mental health education, Rogers hosted a dinner for firefighters at a Minneapolis fire station in 2019, providing a full meal from The Capital Grille as a thank you for all those men and women do.
Beyond his ongoing work with the Foundation, Rogers has long been active in community events and initiatives around Twins Territory. He has been a regular attendee of Twins Winter Caravan and TwinsFest, while he has participated in numerous school and hospital visits during his time in Minnesota. Throughout the 2021 season, Rogers donated the stipend he received for his weekly appearances on the Treasure Island Baseball Network to Every Meal, a Twin Cities-based organization that provides kids with meals on the weekends and during the summer when they don’t have access to food at school.
Rogers, who has been sidelined since July 27 with a left middle finger sprain, went 2-4 with nine saves, a 3.35 ERA (40.1 IP, 15 ER), eight walks and 59 strikeouts in 40 games for the Twins this season. Since making his big-league debut with Minnesota in 2016, he leads all Twins pitchers with 319 appearances (all in relief) and 50 saves, while going 17-18 with a 3.15 ERA (314.2 IP, 110 ER), 76 walks and 361 strikeouts.
Established in 1993, the Carl R. Pohlad Award is named after the late Twins owner, who always felt the need to return something to his community. Past winners are: Brian Harper (1993), Kent Hrbek (1994), Kirby Puckett (1995), Paul Molitor (1996), Rick Aguilera (1997), Terry Steinbach (1998), Ron Coomer (1999), Denny Hocking (2000), Corey Koskie (2001), Brad Radke (2002), Doug Mientkiewicz (2003), Torii Hunter (2004), Ron Gardenhire (2005), Michael Cuddyer (2006), Johan Santana (2007), Joe Mauer (2008), Justin Morneau (2009), Jesse Crain (2010), Carl Pavano (2011), Denard Span (2012), Glen Perkins (2013), Brian Duensing (2014), Brian Dozier (2015), Eduardo Escobar (2016), Kyle Gibson (2017), José Berríos (2018), Nelson Cruz (2019) and Byron Buxton (2020).