2022 MLB Comeback Players of the Year – In 2022, two of baseball’s most prominent players had career-best comeback campaigns.
On Tuesday, St. Louis Cardinals star Albert Pujols and Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander were awarded the National League and American League Comeback Players of the Year, respectively.
Pujols, at age 42, joined former Cardinals teammates Chris Carpenter (2009) and Lance Berkman (2011) as winners of the Comeback Player of the Year award.
In his last season of Major League Baseball, the 22-year-old veteran came back to the Cardinals and turned in one of his greatest performances in years.
In 109 games, Pujols hit.270/345/.550 with 24 home runs and 68 RBI. He joined Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, and Babe Ruth as the only other players in baseball history to smash 700 home runs.
The 24 homers Pujols hit this year are the most he has hit in a season since he blasted 31 with the Los Angeles Angels in 2016. In addition, his.550 slugging percentage and.895 OPS were also career highs not seen since he hit.596 and.906 respectively in 2010 and 2011.
Before joining the Angels in 2012, Pujols played with the Cardinals for 11 seasons. While playing with the St. Louis Cardinals, he was named Rookie of the Year, MVP three times, Silver Slugger six times, Gold Glove twice, Batting Champion once, and World Series champion twice.
Pujols was remained productive after joining the Angels, but his play dipped significantly from the first half of his career due to a slew of ailments. During the 2021 season, the Angels sent him to the Dodgers in a trade.
Ahead of the 2022 season, Pujols said that it would be his last.
This is Verlander’s third Cy Young Award and his second World Series championship. With this award, he becomes the first player in Astros history to make a successful comeback.
As a result of Tommy John surgery, Verlander pitched just six innings in 2020 and did not play at all in 2021. Despite doubts about his 2022 performance, he came back and had perhaps his finest year ever.
2022 MLB Comeback Players of the Year
Verlander & Pujols
The 39-year-old made 28 starts and tallied a 1.75 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, and 185 K’s over 175 innings pitched. The American League has not seen an ERA this low since Pedro Martinez in 2000, and that was before the season was cut short by the epidemic.
Although Verlander has stated his want to return in 2023, he is now a free agent and it is unknown whether he will sign with Houston again.
Who is Justin Verlander ?
Verlander has won the World Series not once, but twice, and he holds many records for no-hitters and strikeouts. He also has multiple Cy Young Awards to his name. When the time comes for him to hang up his cleats for good, he will find a plaque commemorating his career at Cooperstown five years later. It is possible that this will happen when Verlander is in his 50s since it is no longer unthinkable that he would continue to throw beyond the age of 45. After turning down his player option for the 2023 season at a salary of $25 million, he is now a free agent for the second consecutive offseason.
Who is Albert Pujols ?
During the 2021 season, Pujols inked a contract to play with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The next year, he returned to play for the Cardinals in what would turn out to be his last season in the major leagues of baseball. Later on in 2022, he hit the 700th home run of his career, making him just the fourth player in baseball history to accomplish that milestone.
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