NEW YORK (AP) — Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez has been selected as the winner of Major League Baseball’s Roberto Clemente Award for his character, community involvement and philanthropy.

The award was to be presented to the nine-time All-Star and 2015 World Series MVP before Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night at Yankee Stadium.

Perez and his family distribute bags of food and kitchen supplies every winter to 2,000 homes in the neediest parts of his hometown of Valencia, Venezuela, directly impacting more than 10,000 families over the past decade. He runs a youth baseball league there, which provides equipment for the kids and financial support for their families.

Perez, 34, has paid for dozens of operations for children with cleft lip, donated more than 1,000 toys to children’s hospitals and supported police officers. He regularly travels to Colombia to help the Carlos Fortuna Foundation help adults be the best parents they can be, and he crossed the border on foot to get there when strict travel guidelines were in place during the COVID-19 shutdown were.

In the United States, Perez works with organizations fighting Lou Gehrig’s disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and he partners with Kansas-based Braden’s Hope for Childhood Cancer. Perez made a foundational donation of $1 million to the Kansas City Urban Youth Academy, one of MLB’s eleven youth academies, marking the largest ever for the academy.

Clemente, a Hall of Fame outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, died in a plane crash on December 31, 1972, while providing aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

Perez hit .271 with 27 home runs and 104 RBIs in 158 games this season for the Royals, who made the playoffs for the first time since winning their second World Series title in 2015. Perez is a five-time Gold Glove winner and has a .267 career hitter in 1,552 games, all with the Royals since his big league debut in 2011.

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This story makes a correction in the final paragraph to note that the Royals have won two World Series titles.

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