Major League Baseball has announced that Spencer Strider was named the Atlanta Braves 2025 nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, baseball’s most prestigious individual honor for Major Leaguers. Strider is a first-time nominee.

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 leaguewide Award in tribute to Clemente’s achievements and character.

Spencer Strider has been nominated by the Atlanta Braves for his commitment to the foster care community, as well as his support of children in need across Braves Country. Strider and his wife, Maggie, are committed to helping the foster care community through various programs throughout the year.

In 2024, the Striders created Foster Family Fridays, a community program in partnership with the Atlanta Braves Foundation and Georgia Kids Belong, that treats local foster care families to VIP gameday experiences.

Each Friday home game, the Striders host a foster family during pregame batting practice and for a special meet and greet. The family is gifted Braves swag and personalized autographed baseballs from Strider.

Each family also receives added value to their game ticket, compliments of the Striders, to use at any of the ballpark concession stands or clubhouse store locations. For many of these families, attending a Braves game would not be possible without the support and generosity of the Striders.

The Striders are also involved with Georgia Kids Belong in the offseason, working with them on an I Belong Project video shoot to uplift the stories and voices of kids in foster care by capturing video profiles, interview-style, in hopes of connecting the child with a loving family.

In addition to their support of the foster care community, the Striders are also dedicated to giving back to the local children’s hospital. Despite being on the injured list for most of the 2024 season, Strider set up weekly visits to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, visiting and bringing joy to patients throughout the hospital – including one week where he played with Legos in patients’ rooms. Strider has also enlisted his Braves teammates, Ozzie Albies and Spencer Schwellenbach, to join him and Maggie for their trips to Children’s.

This season, Strider was gracious enough to host 11-year-old Beckett, a Make-A-Wish kid, for the experience of a lifetime at Truist Park. Beckett is a cancer survivor from Ontario, Canada, whose wish was to come to Atlanta to see his favorite team in action and meet his favorite player, Spencer Strider.

Strider is the first to volunteer anytime tragedy strikes Braves Country. Following a mass shooting in 2024 at Apalachee High School, located within 50 miles of Truist Park, Strider immediately reached out to ask how he could help.

Upon the return of teachers and students to the building later in the school year, both Spencer and Maggie Strider went and served lunch to all faculty and staff to show support. This season, Strider hosted the Apalachee varsity and junior varsity baseball teams at Truist Park for batting practice on the field pregame.

Through the support and generosity of Strider as a donor, the Atlanta Braves Foundation can continue their mission of building community through baseball by supporting nonprofits focused on serving foster care families across Braves Country. He is an All-Star on the field who is also making significant contributions to his community and beyond.

The Braves will recognize Strider as this year’s Roberto Clemente Award nominee in an on-field ceremony before the next game at Truist Park on September 22.

The league-wide winner of the Roberto Clemente Award will be honored at the 2025 World Series presented by Capital One following selection by a blue-ribbon panel.

This panel includes representatives from the Commissioner’s Office, Capital One, MLB-affiliated networks (MLB Network, FOX Sports, ESPN and TBS), MLB.com, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, as well as Roberto’s children, Enrique, Luis and Roberto Clemente, Jr. Beginning today, fans can vote for the Roberto Clemente Award presented by Capital One via MLBTogether.com/clementeaward (in both English and Spanish).

The site features bios of each of the nominees, allows fans to vote until the end of the season on Sunday, September 28. 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.

A customized tribute video to Clemente’s legacy and the 30 Roberto Clemente Award nominees (ENGLISH & SPANISH) will be shown in all MLB ballparks on Roberto Clemente Day as well as across MLB Network, MLB.com, MLB.tv, Club sites and MLB Social Media platforms.