Peers recognize Bryce Harper as NL's Outstanding Player for 2015

Bryce Harper was named the National League Outstanding Player of the Year at tonight's Major League Baseball Players Choice Awards. Harper smashed 42 homers, tying Colorado's Nolan Arenado for tops in the league. He led the NL in on-base percentage (.460) and slugging percentage (.649), while his .330 batting average was second best in the league to Miami's Dee Gordon.

"I'm definitely very fortunate to play this game every single day," Harper said after receiving the honor on MLB Network. "I absolutely love doing it. To have the respect of the players in different clubhouses, in my clubhouse, it's just been a lot of fun this year. I couldn't have done it without the guys in my clubhouse. To be able to have the guys like Ian Desmond and Jayson Werth and Ryan Zimmerman and Matt Thornton, just to name a few, it's just been a great year and it's been a lot of fun."

Harper made his third All-Star team, breaking the NL record for votes. He was awarded the NL Player of the Month in May and honored three times during the season as league Player of the Week.

After extended stints on the disabled list the previous two years, Harper avoided the injuries in 2015, allowing him to develop as one of the game's most disciplined hitters. Harper set a Nationals/Expos franchise record with 124 walks, the second-highest total in the majors.

"I truly think it's always been there," Harper said on MLB Network. "I just think I was healthy this year. I think that's the main thing. I was able to stay on the field this year and not have those little nagging injuries of sliding into third base and getting my thumb or running into a wall at Dodger Stadium. I was just trying to be as smart as I could out there and just play the game the right way. It's just the experience of knowing when to go hard and when not to go hard and just be able to be smart about everything that I do."

At 22 years, 335 days old, Harper also became the sixth-youngest player in major league history to hit 40 home runs in a season, behind Mel Ott (1929; 20 years, 203 days), Eddie Mathews, (1953; 21 years, 316 days), Johnny Bench (1970; 22 years, 249 days), Joe DiMaggio (1937; 22 years, 285 days) and Juan Gonzalez (1992; 22 years, 331 days).

The MLB players vote for these awards, which shows a bit of the changing of the tides for Harper who was voted "most overrated player in MLB" two years straight in an ESPN The Magazine player poll.

Harper beat out Arizona's Paul Goldschmidt and Arenado for tonight's honor. Harper was also up for the MLB Player of the Year award, but lost out to Toronto third baseman Josh Donaldson.