The 2023 Comeback Players of the Year were announced this week, and the winners are both from Chicago teams. The American League winner was Chicago White Sox closer Liam Hendricks, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma last December, but came back to pitch in late May. To get in shape, he threw bullpen sessions between chemotherapy treatments before the start of the 2023 season. Hendricks was shut down due to right elbow inflamation after 5 games, and underwent Tommy John surgery in August. The White Sox, who lost over 100 games this year, released him after the season, and he is now a free agent. The National League winner was Chicago Cubs centerfielder and 1st baseman Cody Bellinger, who went from a .197 batting average with the Los Angeles Dodgers to batting .307 and hitting 26 home runs and 97 RBIs for the Cubs this year. The Cubs, playing in a weak division, actually had a chance to make the playoffs, but ran out of gas the final weeks of the season. Bellinger has also become a free agent, and is now looking to cash in on his great year. And so neither of the 2023 Comeback Players of the Year are coming back to Chicago. It just figures.
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