However, considering how Matt Harvey performed over the course of the 2015 season, it’s safe to say that the New York Mets handled his return from surgery to near perfection.
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“It’s really awesome”, Fielder told Major League Baseball Network after the winners were announced.
Harvey suffered a torn UCL back in 2013 and underwent Tommy John surgery. Harvey, 26, helped lead the Mets to their first World Series appearance since 2000.
The award, given out annually, honors the player who rebounds most significantly from either injury or poor performance to have an outstanding season the following year. 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).
Fielder hit. 305 with 23 homers and 98 RBIs for Texas, which won the AL West for the first time since 2011. He ranked third in the league with 187 hits, tied for third with 57 multi-hit games, had the A.L.’s sixth best batting average, and produced the 9th most RBI. He also struck out 188 batters in 189.1 innings.
As for Fielder, the 31-year-old had played in every single game except for one from 2009-2013 before he herniated a disc in his neck and was forced to undergo surgery. Most surprisingly, the previously durable first baseman managed to play in 158 games. Along with his game-winning home run at the 2011 All-Star Game, Fielder is one of seven players all-time with at least two game-winning RBI in All-Star history, joining Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Joe Morgan, Stan Musial and Cal Ripken Jr., as well as Steve Garvey and Michael Young. However, that doesn’t mean the Mets didn’t manage his workload properly, despite the fact that Harvey’s agent, Scott Boras, felt the need to stick his head where it didn’t belong and attempt to put a cap on Harvey’s innings this season.
The righthander went 13-8 with a 2.71 ERA over 29 starts in 2015.
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Both award winners have a chance to carry that success into 2016.
