For anyone up in arms wondering how World Series champion Dave Roberts wasn’t even a finalist (again) for Manager of the Year in the National League and how Blue Jays skipper John Schneider didn’t run away with the award in the American League, a reminder is warranted.
The awards are based solely on the regular season, and votes are cast before the playoffs. Postseason performance does not factor in.
Again: Postseason performance does not factor in.
This feels especially important to reiterate when discussing this particular award compared to others voted on by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, considering how subjective it is and how much the postseason can understandably shape fan perception of a manager’s performance.
Unlike other awards, you can’t look at WAR or OPS or ERA to determine the credentials for the best manager in baseball. In addition, front offices increasingly have a role in decisions on the field, and we can’t possibly know how much one manager is involved over another or all the conversations taking place behind the scenes.
What we can see, especially in October: Did the game speed up on the manager in the biggest moments? Did he let his starter ride where others might have turned to the bullpen? Did it work out? Did he pick the right relief matchup in the right spot? Did his pinch-hit decision work out? How did gut calls pay off? All of that can separate a good manager from a great one and a great season from a championship one.
But, as one of the 30 BBWAA members who voted on the AL Manager of the Year Award this year, we only have the first 162 games to make a decision. So we look at wins and losses, and we look at which teams outplayed expectations, and we look at the managers who got the best out of their players and kept the ship afloat through hazardous seas.
Schneider, who took the Blue Jays from worst to first in the always formidable AL East, had a strong argument to win the award even before guiding the Blue Jays to their first World Series since 1993.
He would have been my vote a couple of weeks before season’s end, and he would still be a perfectly reasonable choice.
But Cleveland’s historic finish to the year, during which Vogt kept the belief of a Guardians team that ultimately overcame a 15.5-game deficit — the largest ever to win a division — was enough to sway my vote for AL Manager of the Year.
My final ballot:
- Stephen Vogt, Guardians
- John Schneider, Blue Jays
- Dan Wilson, Mariners
That’s how the BBWAA voting finally panned out, as nicely, with Vogt incomes 17 of the BBWAA’s 30 first-place votes. Schneider acquired 10, Wilson bought two and Boston’s Alex Cora bought one. Cora completed fourth within the voting adopted by Detroit’s A.J. Hinch in fifth and Houston’s Joe Espada in sixth.
The Guardians had been greater than 15 video games out of first place on July 8. By then, starter Luis Ortiz had been positioned on administrative go away amid an MLB playing investigation. Weeks later, Cleveland misplaced star nearer Emmanuel Clase to the identical investigation. Neither pitcher would throw one other pitch for the Guardians in 2025, and each would later be indicted on expenses tied to allegedly rigging pitches.
On the deadline, no assist arrived.
In reality, Cleveland’s path ahead was made much more difficult when the Guardians traded away former Cy Younger Award winner Shane Bieber to Toronto as he approached his return from Tommy John surgical procedure.
It could have been simple to pack it up.
The Guardians had a bottom-five payroll and an offense that lacked what gave the impression to be the requisite star energy to mount a surprising comeback. José Ramírez might solely achieve this a lot to elevate an offense that completed the yr ranked final within the AL in on-base proportion, slugging and OPS.
Ramírez and first baseman Kyle Manzardo had been the one Guardians gamers who hit above league common on the season. Ramírez and outfielder Steven Kwan had been the one Guardians gamers price at the very least 2 WAR.
In the meantime, the pitching wasn’t as overpowering because it was the yr prior. The bullpen was lacking Clase, and the rotation entered September ranked 18th in ERA and nineteenth in strikeout price.
On the morning of Sept. 5, with solely 23 video games left to play, the Guardians had been nonetheless 11 video games again within the AL Central. No staff had ever overcome even a nine-game deficit in September to win a division.
To his credit score, Vogt saved the assumption.
“We are able to’t management the 11 video games,” Vogt informed me after successful the award. “The one method you’ll be able to overcome a deficit like that’s to win every particular person sport. We preached it and tried to reside it day by day.”
Actually, the Tigers’ collapse down the stretch performed a big position in loosening Detroit’s season-long stranglehold within the AL Central, however that shouldn’t reduce what the Guardians achieved, towards all odds.
They went 48-26 from July 7 by the tip of the season, compiling extra wins than any staff in MLB throughout that point. They usually completed the yr successful 19 of their final 23 video games, together with a 5-1 mark towards the Tigers staff they had been chasing, to finally seize their second straight division title underneath Vogt.
He turned the fourth skipper to win Supervisor of the Yr in consecutive seasons, becoming a member of the Rays’ Kevin Money (2020-21), the Braves’ Bobby Cox (2004-05) and the Brewers’ Pat Murphy, who was additionally named his respective league’s winner for the award for the second straight season on Tuesday.
“I leaned on everybody round me,” Vogt informed me. “I leaned on the teaching employees. I leaned on the entrance workplace. I leaned on the gamers. We had been all in that collectively.”
Schneider and Wilson each mounted robust arguments. The Blue Jays, with a top-five payroll, a star in first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., a resurgent yr from designated hitter George Springer and a bevy of depth items who took an enormous leap ahead, had a 20-win enchancment and held off the Yankees to win their first division title in 10 years. The Mariners, bolstered by some main deadline additions, made a five-win enchancment and received their first division title since 2001.
Both can be high quality selections, however neither overcame the chances of a Guardians staff that everybody had counted out. It’s the resilience of the Guardians that Vogt, who turned the primary skipper ever to win Supervisor of the Yr in his first two big-league seasons on the helm, will keep in mind most from the 2025 season.
“And that we truly bought it carried out,” Vogt mentioned.
Rowan Kavner is an MLB author for FOX Sports activities. He beforehand coated the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved again to the West Coast in 2014. Comply with him on X at @RowanKavner.
