Chris Young and Casey McGehee scale great odds to win MLB Comeback Player of the Year Award
Two very different Comeback Players of the Year
There's nothing people love more than comebacks. It's why we love movies like "Rocky," "Rudy" and the and the McConaissance.
This season, the two winners of the MLB Comeback Player of the Year really earned it: pitcher Chris Young of the Mariners and Marlins third baseman Casey McGehee
Returning from more arm problems than James Franco in "127 Hours," which limited Young to only 235 innings since 2009, the lanky right-hander went 12-9 with a 3.65 ERA in 165 innings for the Mariners.
He even managed to do it with an 85-mph fastball that he predominantly left up in the zone. Rather than batters crushing it out of the park, Young consistently induced weak contact, posting the second-highest infield fly percentage, sandwiching himself on the leaderboards between Jordan Zimmermann and Clayton Kershaw. (On a fun note, Young also broke his own Major League record for lowest ground-ball percentage in a season with 22.3.)
As for McGehee, his victory came at a fitting time. As some Major League players prepare to fly to Japan to start their series against Samurai Japan, McGehee was rewarded in his first season back from the NPB. After hitting .292/.376/.515 with 28 home runs and 93 RBIs for the Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2013, the man with the best gold prospector's facial hair this side of an actual miner in the 1850s returned to hit .287/.355/.357 with four home runs and 76 RBIs. That included this ninth inning home run that helped the Marlins to a 6-3 victory over the Brewers: