Fielder 'got tired' in middle of bounce-back season

For almost a decade, Prince Fielder was the most durable ballplayer on the planet.

Despite his size, the paunchy first baseman led the majors in games played from 2006 to 2013, never appearing in fewer than 157 contests in a season over that span. From 2009 through the 2013 campaign, in fact, Fielder had a total of one off-day (in 2010, he had the audacity to take a game off).

So, after missing most of the 2014 campaign following major neck surgery, the Texas Rangers' popular designated hitter figured he'd have no trouble re-acclimating to the daily grind of a six-month season.

Turns out, he was wrong.

"I kind of thought it’d be easy since I had done it so much, but having the year off it kind of … I got tired there in the middle," Fielder told Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

It showed, too. After exploding out of the gate in 2015, the 31-year-old seemingly hit a wall toward the middle of the summer, with his offensive productivity tailing off markedly following the All-Star break.

Still, despite his sluggish second half (and postseason), Fielder finished the campaign with an .841 OPS (126 OPS+) and 23 homers in 158 games, providing plenty of reasons for general manager Jon Daniels to be optimistic as a new season approaches.

"I'm a glass half-full kind of guy," Daniels said. "Having put that behind him, now knowing that he can go, I'm excited to see what he can do this year. If he does the same thing, there's a lot of value in that. The thought that he might be able to take it to another level, that would be an added bonus."