The Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America announced on Monday that it will institute an annual Texas Rangers award in the memory of Richard Durrett.
The Richard Durrett Hardest-Working Man award will be presented annually to a player who demonstrates significant improvement over the previous season or seasons through hard work. The award is named for Durrett, who reported on the Rangers for more than a decade with The Dallas Morning News and ESPNDallas.com before his sudden death on June 17 at age 38.
The DFW Chapter selected catcher Robinson Chirinos as the inaugural winner of the award for making the most of his chances to be the team's regular catcher in 2014. "Richard was a tireless worker and always strove to make himself and the people around him better," said Evan Grant, baseball reporter for The Dallas Morning News and the chapter's chairman. "We have a long history of honoring the late Harold McKinney, who also died at a tragically young age, with our annual Good Guy Award. Honoring Richard and a Ranger player who epitomized how he approached his job seemed like a perfect fit."
Chirinos entered spring training seeking to win an Opening Day roster spot and emerged as the team's top backstop for much of the season, starting a Rangers-high 88 games behind the plate. He batted .239 with 13 homers and 40 RBIs in 93 games. He also threw out 36.2 percent (25 of 69) of would-be base stealers, the best percentage of any American League regular catcher.
"Robinson was a near-unanimous choice," Grant said. "Like Richard, he seemed focused on making constant improvement in every aspect of his job. And like Richard, he always seems to have a smile on his face while doing it."
Chirinos will be honored at the 2015 Dr Pepper Texas Rangers Awards Dinner on Jan. 23 at the Dallas Omni Hotel.