Cincinnati Reds Reliever Tejay Antone Robbed of Award After Incredible Comeback Season

He went unrecognized.

Cincinnati Reds pitcher Tejay Antone (70) catches a ball in the ninth inning between the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati on Saturday, July 11, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Major League Baseball announced the winners of the Comeback Players of the Year Award for the 2026 season, with Zack Wheeler winning for the National League and Yordan Alvarez winning for the American League. A familiar name for Reds fans had an incredible season out of the bullpen this season; he not only missed out on winning the award, but he was not even on the ballot.

Tejay Antone Snubbed of Comeback Player of the Year Award

Antone has one of the more interesting stories over the last 10 years. The 32-year-old has undergone three Tommy John operations since 2017. His most recent occurred in April of 2024, causing him to miss the entirety of the 2025 season.

This season for the Reds, Antone was arguably the Reds' best reliever this season. He pitched in 58 games out of the bullpen, posting a 3.11 ERA with a .211 batting average against, a 1.09 WHIP and the lowest walks-per-nine of his career at 2.8. His 1.2 bWAR was the second-best of his career, and he earned his first save since 2021.

For Wheeler, he had a significant injury and surgery in September of 2025. He had a rib removed in an operation to treat thoracic outlet decompression surgery. He was placed on the IL in August. He missed the final six weeks of the 2025 season and the postseason and returned to the mound on April 25.

How Does Antone Get Left Off The Ballot?

The argument for Antone is that he missed the entire 2025 season due to the injury and returned to be a high-end reliever for the Reds last season. For Wheeler, he missed just six weeks last season and returned less than a month into the season. Wheeler pitched in 149 2/3 innings over 24 starts for the Phillies last season with a 2.71 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, a.197 batting average against, and 195 strikeouts.

This is by no means taking anything away from Wheeler and his recovery from his operation, but there was cause to believe that Antone was going to retire after going through a third Tommy John operation. Instead, he came back and pitched as well as, or better than, he has throughout his career.

His 55 1/3 innings were a career high by 19 2/3 innings; he set a career high in strikeouts with 57, and his WHIP is around where he has been when healthy throughout his career at 1.09. Wheeler is a deserving winner of the award, but for Antone to be left off the ballot is the bigger issue, given how good he was this season coming back from, again, his third Tommy John operation.

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