Harvey, Fielder win Comeback POY awards
Major League Baseball awarded its Comeback Player of the Year awards to Matt Harvey of the Mets and Prince Fielder of the Rangers on Thursday, capping amazing turnaround seasons for both players in 2015.
The NL winner, Harvey missed all of 2014 recovering from Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery Oct. 22, 2013. In 2015, he posted a 2.71 ERA (sixth in the NL) and 188 strikeouts in 189 1/3 innings pitched for the Mets, who won the NL East for the first time since 2006. He also posted a 3.04 ERA in four postseason games — two in the World Series, including the deciding Game 5 against the Royals, which he led 2-0 heading into the ninth inning. After he talked manager Terry Collins into letting him pitch one more inning, the Royals mounted a comeback to tie the score, and won in 12 innings.
The AL winner, Fielder sustained a neck injury in 2014 and was limited to three home runs in 42 games. After having surgery and re-tooling his workout regimen, Fielder rebounded to hit .305 with 23 home runs and an .841 on-base plus slugging in 158 games. He also made the All-Star game for the sixth time. From 2006 until his injury season of 2014, Fielder had played in all but 13 of the possible 1,296 games with the Brewers and Tigers.
From MLB, here’s how the winners were chosen:
The Comeback Player of the Year awards are officially sanctioned by Major League Baseball and are presented annually to one player in each League who has re-emerged on the field during the season. The 30 Club beat reporters from MLB.com, the official web site of Major League Baseball, selected the winners from an original list of 30 candidates (one per MLB Club).
Other possible candidates: In the NL, Joey Votto of the Reds posted a 1.000 OPS, a league-best 143 walks, 29 home runs and 95 runs scored. In the AL, Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees and Kendrys Morales were viable choices. A-Rod, not necessarily for his rebound from a PED suspension, but three injury plagued seasons in which he dealt with surgery on both hips and others dings of old age. Morales needed two full years, almost, to recover from a broken leg sustained during a game-ending home run celebration at the plate.
Matt Harvey (left) and Prince Fielder comeback winners in 2015. (USATSI)
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