Verlander, Pujols voted Comeback Players of the Year
NEW YORK (AP) — Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander and St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols gained baseball’s Comeback Player of the Year awards Tuesday night time.
Verlander, the American League recipient, returned from Tommy John surgical procedure to guide Houston to its second World Series championship. He had the bottom ERA within the majors and was a unanimous winner of his third Cy Young Award — turning into the primary participant to earn the prize after not pitching within the earlier season.
Pujols, honored within the National League, got here again to St. Louis for his farewell season and posted his largest numbers in years at age 42. The three-time MVP compiled an .895 OPS for the NL Central champions and have become the fourth main leaguer to succeed in 700 profession residence runs.
The winners had been chosen in voting by the 30 workforce beat reporters at MLB.com.
Verlander went 18-4 with a 1.75 ERA and 185 strikeouts in 28 begins and made his ninth All-Star workforce. He gained Game 5 in Philadelphia for the primary World Series win of his illustrious profession, then turned a free agent this month.
The 39-year-old right-hander made just one begin in 2020 due to his elbow harm and missed your entire 2021 season whereas recovering from surgical procedure.
Pujols batted .270 with 24 homers and 68 RBIs in 109 video games for the Cardinals after getting launched by the Los Angeles Angels in May 2021 and ending final 12 months with the Dodgers.
His OPS was his highest since his final season with the Cardinals in 2011 (.906) earlier than becoming a member of the Angels, and his residence runs had been his most since hitting 31 in 2016 for the Angels.
The 11-time All-Star hit 18 residence runs within the second half and retired after the Cardinals had been eradicated from the playoffs by Philadelphia within the wild-card spherical.
He completed his profession fourth in main league annals in residence runs (703), second in RBIs (2,218) and whole bases (6,211), and ninth in hits (3,384).
