Uncertainty surrounded Prince Fielder a year ago as he reported all was well in his surgically repaired neck.
He was doing all the offseason stuff he normally did, including some unorthodox training that seemed better suited for UFC fighters and wannabes.
Texas Rangers brass, though, were holding their breath, waiting to see if the slugger they were paying handsomely could, well, slug again. His first few weeks of spring training didn't allow them to exhale.
By the end of the season, though, Fielder had proven healthy and had shown that somewhere in his bulky frame the power still existed. His was the Rangers' lone All-Star, their lone .300 hitter, and he led them with 98 RBIs and tied for the team lead with 23 homers.
His work earned him the Comeback Player of the Year award in the American League.
The Rangers gladly took it, and they would live with it going forward if that's the kind of hitter Fielder is the rest of his career.
Neither the Rangers nor Fielder believe that's all he has left. He might not hit 40 or 50 homers, but 30 should be doable for a team that hasn't has a 30-homer hitter the past two seasons.
"If that's what's drawn up for me then I have no choice, but I think I can do better," Fielder said. "If I stay healthy, you never know. I just want to keep trying to be a better hitter."
Fielder, who turns 32 in May, admitted last spring that he had some uncertainty about what he would do after missing most of the 2014 season and even felt some hesitance while he prepared for his comeback campaign.
He knocked only one homer but was clearly the Rangers' best hitter in April as they stumbled to a baseball-worst .210 average and a 7-14 record. But Fielder started clearing fences more regularly beginning in May and also spent time atop the batting heap with the AL's best average.
He cooled to only .255 over his final 66 games and struggled badly in the division series against Toronto, batting .150 with one RBI.
Fielder, one who typically doesn't make excuses during a season, admitted that the grind caught up to him.
"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," said Fielder, who hit a career-high 50 homers in 2007.
Detroit was paying for a great player when it signed him away from Milwaukee via free agency in 2012, and the Rangers expected a great player when they traded for Fielder after the 2013 season.
General manager Jon Daniels said that Fielder's 2015 numbers going forward still would make him a quality player.
"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."
Shortstop Elvis Andrus latched onto the theme that Fielder was feeling his way through 2015. Now that he has a season under him following major surgery, Fielder's confidence should be in the right place and he should be more capable of producing the kind of power the Rangers were expecting when they acquired him.
"Last year was a great comeback for him, being out a season for an injury," Andrus said. "I think he did a tremendous job not trying to do too much and take what the game was asking. He's going to sacrifice some homers having that approach, but I think he's going to be a lot more comfortable mentally."
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