Young, Pena awarded for comebacks

WASHINGTON -- Washington Nationals first baseman Dmitri Young was chosen as Major League Baseball's NL comeback player of the year Tuesday after setting aside professional, legal and substance abuse problems to become an All-Star.

Young won the award after finishing tied for eighth in the NL in batting with a career-high .320 average. He had 13 home runs and 74 RBIs.

Young had not finished a season at .300 or higher since hitting .302 with 21 homers and 69 RBIs for the Cincinnati Reds in 2001. He batted .250 with seven homers and 23 RBIs in 48 games with the Detroit Tigers in 2006.

Young was out of baseball altogether at the end of last season when he was released by the Tigers with less than a month left in the regular season.

Young got a second chance in February when he agreed to a non-guaranteed, minor league contract with Washington.

One season after being released by three teams, Carlos Pena put together the best performance in Tampa Bay Devil Rays history and was chosen the AL comeback player of the year.

The 28-year-old slugger batted a career-best .282 with a club-record 46 home runs and 121 RBIs after joining the Devil Rays in spring training as a non-roster invitee.

Last year, he homered once in 18 games for Boston and spent most of the season in Class AAA with the Red Sox and New York Yankees. He hit 27 homers and drove in 82 runs for Detroit in 2004, but slipped to 18 homers and 44 RBIs the following season and was released by the Tigers in March 2006.