The Los Angeles Dodgers announced Chase Utley was named the winner of the 13th annual Roy Campanella Award, which is given to the franchise’s player who best exemplifies the spirit and leadership of the late Hall-of-Fame catcher.
The award is voted upon all Dodgers players and uniformed personnel. “He’s as good as it gets,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said about Utley.
“The effect he has had throughout. If you think back to 2015, to that point we were one of the worst base-running teams in baseball. We get Utley, and from that point through the end of the season on we were second. It speaks to the effect he can have. He has had as much and as lasting of an impact as I’ve ever seen a player have on an organization.”
Utley receives the award for a second time in the past three seasons (Justin Turner won in 2017) and will be presented with the hardware by Campanella’s daughter, Joni Campanella Roan, and his grandson, J.T. Campanella, during a pregame ceremony on Saturday night.
Clayton Kershaw, who won back-to-back Roy Campanella Awards in 2013 and 2014, are the only Dodgers players to receive the honor twice. For Utley, his second time winning comes in the final season of his career.
As further proof of how valued and respected he is throughout the organization, teammates packed the room when Utley made the formal announcement to retire at the end of the 2018 season.
Former Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal received the inaugural Roy Campanella Award in 2006 and since then the honor has been awarded to Russell Martin (2007), James Loney (2008), Juan Pierre (2009), Jamey Carroll (2010), Matt Kemp (2011), A.J. Ellis (2012), Kershaw (2013-14), Zack Greinke (2015), Utley (2016) and Turner (2017).
