Alex Cora Believes Jarren Duran Should Win Prestigious MLB Award

Nominees for the prestigious Roberto Clemente Award are usually revealed in mid-September.

But the Boston Red Sox already have their candidate, according to manager Alex Cora.

Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran displayed tremendous courage when he decided to share his story of a past suicide attempt in the Netflix docuseries released Tuesday, which gave a behind-the-scenes look at the 2024 team. Duran’s openness about his mental health struggles have made an immense impact on others and Cora believes he will help “save lives” by sharing his story.

“Obviously it’s not going to be a packed house tonight with the weather but he should get a standing ovation right away, not for what he went through but what he’s doing with it,” Cora told reporters prior to Tuesday night’s game, per the Boston Herald’s Gabrielle Starr. “He should be nominated already for the Roberto Clemente Award right now. He should win it, to be honest with you, just because of what he said and what he’s doing. He’s saving lives and we’re very proud of him.”

The Roberto Clemente Award is given annually to a MLB player “who best represents the game of baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.”

Duran certainly fits that description and he would be the first Red Sox player since David Ortiz in 2011 to take home the accolade.

The 28-year-old Duran not only continued to address his mental health battle in a statement Tuesday, but also spoke with the media for over 10 minutes at Fenway Park discussing his journey.

Cora’s remarks that Duran’s story will be a life-saver gave him a different outlook.

“I didn’t really put that into perspective until he said that and I kind of sat back and was like, ‘Yeah hearing that people are talking about it more and that could help a lot of people help save their lives.’ Just getting out there is, has been really eye-opening and I hope it does,” Duran told reporters, per NESN. “That was the whole purpose of it was to just get it out there. Like I’ll take the media for these people to be able to talk about it on the back end.”

Duran is going a step further in trying to help others who endure mental health struggles as well. Duran revealed he is establishing a foundation to aid that endeavor.

“For me, I just want people to feel like they have somebody to talk to and that we can get them the help they need,” Duran said. “I know I want to focus on everybody, but also the younger generation, because I know growing up I had no idea what was going on. So I feel like if we can help them at a younger age, it just prepares them for their adulthood.”

The Samaritans have provided suicide prevention services in Massachusetts for 50 years. They have a 24/7 help line among other services and for people under the age of 25, they have a “Hey Sam” peer-to-peer texting service. The number for the text line is 439-726.