Roberto Clemente Award nominees announced - MLB

The Roberto Clemente Award goes to the Major Leaguer who “best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual’s contribution to his team.” Yadier Molina won the award last year. This year’s nominees were just announced, and they are listed below.

September 18 will be Roberto Clemente Day, and all the home teams will honor their nominees. Visiting teams will do it for their guys on their next home stand.

The league-wide winner of the Roberto Clemente Award will be announced during the World Series. He will be selected by a panel that includes MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, representatives from the national networks which broadcast baseball, MLB.com and Clemente’s widow, Vera Clemente. There is also a fan vote component, the winner of which receives one vote among those cast by the blue ribbon panel. You can vote here from tomorrow through Sunday, September 29.

The nominees:

Arizona Diamondbacks – Eduardo Escobar

Atlanta Braves – Charlie Culberson

Baltimore Orioles – Chris Davis

Boston Red Sox – Brock Holt

Chicago Cubs – Jon Lester

Chicago White Sox – Tim Anderson

Cincinnati Reds – Michael Lorenzen

Cleveland Indians – Carlos Carrasco

Colorado Rockies – Ian Desmond

Detroit Tigers – Miguel Cabrera

Houston Astros – Alex Bregman

Kansas City Royals – Alex Gordon

Los Angeles Angels – Andrew Heaney

Los Angeles Dodgers – Kenley Jansen

Miami Marlins – Martín Prado

Milwaukee Brewers – Chase Anderson

Minnesota Twins – Kyle Gibson

New York Mets – Steven Matz

New York Yankees – CC Sabathia

Oakland Athletics – Liam Hendriks

Philadelphia Phillies – Rhys Hoskins

Pittsburgh Pirates – Trevor Williams

San Diego Padres – Hunter Renfroe

San Francisco Giants – Pablo Sandoval

Seattle Mariners – Dee Gordon

St. Louis Cardinals – Adam Wainwright

Tampa Bay Rays – Kevin Kiermaier

Texas Rangers – Elvis Andrus

Toronto Blue Jays – Randal Grichuk

Washington Nationals – Anthony Rendon

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NEW YORK — Yankees star Aaron Judge was placed on the injured list with a right calf strain before Friday night’s game against Boston and manager Aaron Boone is optimistic the outfielder will not miss significant time.

The move was retroactive to Wednesday and Boone described the strain as mild after an MRI revealed the injury. To replace Judge on the roster, Thairo Estrada was recalled from the Yankees’ alternate site in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Judge began Friday leading the majors with nine homers and tied with Colorado’s Charlie Blackmon for the major league lead with 20 RBIs.

“It’s something that I think he really wants to try and work through here and kind of wants to be out here and feels like it’s a day-to-day thing which it may very well be, but I just think obviously it goes without saying how important a player Aaron is to us,” Boone said.

Boone had said last weekend’s series on the artificial turf in Tampa Bay took its toll on the 6-foot-7 outfielder.

Judge joined Giancarlo Stanton as the second Yankees slugger to land on the injured list this. Stanton was placed on the IL with a strained hamstring after getting hurt in the second game of last Saturday’s doubleheader.

“We’ve lost two MVP-caliber players,” Boone said. “Obviously that is a blow, especially two guys that playing well as they are right now.”

Judge was pulled for a pinch hitter during Tuesday night’s win over Atlanta and didn’t play Wednesday. The Yankees were off Thursday.

The 28-year-old All-Star missed time during July’s training camp because of a stiff neck.

The 2017 AL Rookie of the Year hit 27 homers in each of the last two seasons, both of them interrupted by injuries. His right wrist was broken when he was hit by a pitch in 2018 and he went on the injured list for two months last year with a left oblique strain.

Judge was diagnosed with a broken rib in March and would not have been ready for the season opener if the season began as scheduled on March 26.