The posthumous honors for Jose Fernandez keep coming.
The Sporting News on Tuesday named the late Marlins pitcher its NL Comeback Player of the Year, one month to the day after he died in a boating accident off Miami Beach.
Major league players voted on the award, with many of the ballots cast before Fernandez's death. Of the 177 votes by players, 70 went to Fernandez. Washington Nationals pitcher Tanner Roark finished second with 27 votes, followed by Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Rich Hill (17).
This is the first time in 80 years that one of the Sporting News' year-end awards has been given to a player posthumously, according to the publication.
Fernandez was a candidate for such an honor even before his death made him a sentimental choice. In his first full season after May 2014 Tommy John surgery, he had a 2.86 ERA and 1.12 WHIP while making a career-high 29 starts and making his second All-Star team.
Fernandez's rate of 12.5 strikeouts per nine innings is the fifth-best such average by any starter over a single season since 1900. His 253 strikeouts were a new Marlins franchise record.
In the early morning hours of Sept. 25, the 24-year-old Fernandez and two others _ 27-year-old Emilio Macias and 25-year-old Eduardo Rivero _ died when Fernandez's boat crashed into a jetty.
The crash is still under investigation. The families of Macias and Rivero have hired a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., attorney.
Many from across the sporting world and beyond have honored Fernandez in the weeks since. That includes the Florida Panthers, who wore No. 16 Panthers jerseys during warmups before their first game of the season. Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Antonio Brown, a Miami native, honored Fernandez and late MMA fighter Kimbo Slice with special cleats when the Steelers visited the Dolphins this month. And closest to Marlins Park, Miami might rename a street near the Marlins' stadium "Jose Fernandez Avenue."
Fernandez is the third Marlins player to win Sporting News' NL Comeback Player of the Year award. Darren Daulton was honored in 1997 and Casey McGehee in 2014.
