Mookie Betts secured some hardware Tuesday.
The Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association (MLBPAA) announced the 30 preliminary winners of the 2018 Heart & Hustle Award, and Betts was named the Boston Red Sox’s recipient.
The award honors active players who demonstrate a passion for the game of baseball and who best embody the values, spirit and traditions of the game, and it’s the only award in MLB that is voted on by former players.
The MLBPAA formed 30 committees — comprised of alumni players with established relationships to each team — and one player from each club is chosen by the committees based on their passion, desire and work ethic demonstrated both on and off the field. All alumni and active players then vote to select the final winner from the 30 team winners.
This marks the 14th time the award is being given out. New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner was the overall winner in 2017, four years after Dustin Pedroia became the first Red Sox player to win the overall award.
Rick Porcello was the Red Sox’s 2017 recipient of the Heart & Hustle Award.
