CINCINNATI — Adbert Alzolay got to his locker at Great American Ballpark on the penultimate day of the 2022 season and noticed an envelope with a card inside of it.

He opened it, read it and had to keep his emotions in check.

“I felt a little bit sentimental because of what was written,” Alzolay said.

Inside, teammate Michael Rucker had written a message to Alzolay congratulating him on his year in which he returned from injury and wishing him the best ahead of the offseason.

“I think it was the first time that a teammate has come up to me and done a gesture like that with everyone here in the locker room with the pitchers,” Alzolay said. “It’s something that tells you his kindness and how good of a person he is and how close we are as a team.”

Rucker has left messages with clubhouse attendants and coaches in the past, but this year wanted to share those with his bullpen teammates, to acknowledge “the hard work we put in.”

The pair have a history — they both ascended through the Cubs minor league system, playing together at then-High-A Myrtle Beach in 2017. Since Alzolay has returned to the big leagues after a long injury layoff, the pair have joked, reminisced and talked about their time together in the minors and now at the big-league level.

“Getting to your locker and seeing a card with all the nice things he wrote, you notice that he was paying a ton of attention to my recovery and all these things,” Alzolay said. “It tells you everything about the person.”