This afternoon, Major League Baseball announced the winners of the Comeback Player of the Year Award for the National League and the American League. Picking up the honors in the National League was Washington Nationals first baseman Dimitri Young while Tampa Bay Devil Rays first baseman Carlos Peña won it in the American League.
If you can remember back in the latter part of the 2006 season, Young was released by the Detroit Tigers as he was suffering from alcohol dependency and other personal problems. He was invited to the Nationals spring training as a non-roster invitee and end up making the team. All he did was make his second All-Star team and hit .320 with 13 home runs and 74 RBIs. His .320 batting average was good for 8th in the National League.
Peña spent most of the 2006 season playing in the minors for the New York Yankees and was eventually released. He was picked up by the Boston Red Sox and spent part of the time in Triple-A with Pawtucket and eventually finished the season with the Sox. He was let go after the season.
The Devil Rays invited him to spring training as a non-roster invitee and he almost didn’t make the club. He had a rough spring training and was sent to Durham on March 30th. An injury to Greg Norton led to Peña’s recall to the Devil Rays and he never looked back.
Peña finished the season hitting .282 with 46 home runs and 121 RBIs. All those were career highs for him. The 46 home runs and 121 RBIs also set single-season club records for the Devil Rays.
We had talked about this last week on our radio show and the consensus was that these two would win the honors.
Congratulations to both on a well deserved honor.
