Daniel Bard, Sal Perez named MLB's comeback players of year

Major League Baseball announced its recipients of the American League and National League Comeback Player of the Year awards on Thursday, with Colorado Rockies reliever Daniel Bard winning in the Senior Circuit and Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez receiving the AL honor.

Bard, 35, surprisingly made the Opening Day roster for the Rockies after spending six years out of the majors. The right-hander wound up earning the club's closer role, authoring a 3.65 ERA and 3.64 FIP over 24 2/3 innings and notching six saves.

Bard, who most recently served as a coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks, memorably did not have an official uniform during his first appearances in summer camp after coming out of retirement and used electrical tape to put No. 52 on a blank jersey:

Perez, meanwhile, missed the entire 2019 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. However, the 30-year-old catcher bounced back in a big way, hitting .333/.353/.633 with 11 homers over 37 games in the abbreviated campaign. Perez was also named as the All-MLB catcher on Wednesday and won his third Silver Slugger earlier in the winter.