Major League Baseball announced Thursday that Texas Rangers designated hitter Prince Fielder and New York Mets starting pitcher Matt Harvey were named the Comeback Players of the Year for 2015.
Fielder played in just 42 games in 2014 and showed a surprising lack of power, with just three home runs. His season came to a close in May when he underwent neck surgery.
Fielder admitted in September that he wasn’t sure such a strong bounce-back campaign, which included a .378 on-base percentage and 23 homers in 158 games, was possible, as noted by Tyler Kepner of the New York Times.
“There’s doubts,” Fielder said. “You have neck surgery, you don’t know where you’re at. You haven’t played in a year or so, you don’t know where you’re going to be.”
His return to form helped the Rangers finish third in runs scored.
Harvey came back from Tommy John surgery, which forced him to miss the entire 2014 season, and showcased the same electric stuff he had before the arm injury. He went 13-8 with a 2.71 ERA and 1.02 WHIP in 29 starts. He also struck out 188 batters in 189.1 innings.
Although the Mets did skip some of his starts in an effort to reduce the burden in his first season back, Harvey still set a new record in terms of workload, per Adam Rubin of ESPN New York:
His return, paired with the presence of fellow budding stars Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard, helped New York finish fourth in team ERA. He also made four playoff starts during the team’s run to the World Series, posting a 2-0 record and a 3.04 ERA.
Both award winners have a chance to carry that success into 2016. Fielder has moved almost exclusively into the designated hitter role, rather than playing first base, which takes away the downside of his lackluster defense and allows him to focus on hitting.
The fact that Harvey handled a lot of innings in his return without any major setbacks bodes well. Now he gets the offseason to rest and recover normally, which should set him up to contend for the NL Cy Young Award next year.
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