ANAHEIM – Major League Baseball announced yesterday that Jared Walsh was named the Los Angeles Angels 2022 nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, baseball's most prestigious individual honor for Major Leaguers.  

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.  

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.  

Walsh is one of the 30 Club nominees for the annual award.  Through his four seasons in the Major Leagues, Walsh has become a familiar face with the Angels community engagement, volunteering at various clinics such as this year's Play Ball Weekend Clinic, visiting young patients at Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) and MemorialCare Miller Children's and Women's Hospital Long Beach, reading library books to children through the Rally Readers program, and inspiring young students as an Adopt-A-School assembly speaker at local elementary schools.  Even during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic season when opportunities for community involvement were limited, Walsh found himself on multiple Zoom calls with children's hospital patients to play games with them, providing laughter to those kids receiving care in their room.  

During the off-season, Walsh and his mother, Lisa, are active volunteers and have volunteered with Habitat for Humanity in Atlanta.  Most recently, they worked with Hands on Atlanta during the 2021-22 off-season providing the local Atlanta communities impacted with food insecurity by sorting and packing up boxes of pantry items for distribution.

Losing his father at the age of 19, Walsh has seen how being a single-parent can impact a family and has chosen The Single Parent Project, an organization that offers financial assistance and resources to single parents, to be the recipient for this donation from MLB Charities, as part of his nomination.  He hopes that his involvement with The Single Parent Project can provide support for families who do not meet the government threshold to obtain relief, with the assistance they need, whether it is financial, emotional or educational.  

The Angels will honor Walsh and Roberto Clemente Day during a pre-game celebration on September 16th when they host the Seattle Mariners. 

"We are excited to have Jared Walsh be the Angels nominee for this year's Roberto Clemente Award," said Angels Chairman Dennis Kuhl.  "This is his first year as our nominee and the Angels organization is very proud of him as he continues to support our community efforts and exemplifying the characteristics of Roberto Clemente with his involvement in various programs such as the Habitat for Humanity and The Single Parent Project."

"Roberto Clemente was a Hall of Fame player both on and off the field," said Walsh.  "As a child, I was inspired by the way he played baseball and his humanitarian efforts of serving people in need.  He was a positive force and risked his life to improve the lives of others. I am extremely humbled and honored to be this year's nominee for the Angels."

Wednesday, September 15th marks the 21st annual Roberto Clemente Day, which was established by Major League Baseball to honor Clemente's legacy as a humanitarian and to formally acknowledge Club nominees of the Roberto Clement Award. As part of the league-wide celebration, the Roberto Clemente Day logo will appear on the base jewels and official dugout lineup cards and a special tribute video will be played in ballparks.  

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 Capital One, 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 yesterday, fans can vote for the Roberto Clemente Award presented by Capital One via mlb.com/clemente21 (English) and LasMayores.com/clemente21 (Spanish). The site will feature bios of each of the nominees and will allow fans to vote until the end of the season on Wednesday, October 5th. 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 tribute to Clemente following his passing.