The Managers, 2025

Manager of the Year is my favorite of Baseball's annual awards.  Why?  Because there are so many different ways you can win Manager of the Year, and there are usually multiple deserving candidates in each league.  It also depends on how each individual voter defines it. 

Everybody's criteria is different.  And it really is completely subjective.  Who did the better job?  The guy who unexpectedly took his team to the playoffs or the manager of a good team that met those lofty expectations?  Was it the manager of a surprise contender that just missed the playoffs or the team that overcame injuries and roster changes during the season?  Or the team that had the biggest turnaround?  Sometimes it's a combination of those things.

All six of this year's finalists meet one or more of those criteria, as do some others who aren't finalists.  This year, all six finalists led their teams to the playoffs, which certainly wasn't expected of all of them.  Five of the six teams that won their division are represented, with only Dave Roberts missing (for obvious reasons).  Both of last year's winners have a rare chance to repeat, although one of them is a longshot to do that.

Stephen Vogt, last year's winner in the American League, somehow guided Cleveland to a division title.  The Tigers led the AL Central all season.  The Guardians were 15 1/2 back in July and 11 back on September 5.  Yet, thanks mainly to a 17-5 stretch right after that, they caught and overtook Detroit.  They did this without their closer, Emmanuel Clase (who, it's safe to say, will never pitch in the Majors again) and no rotation to speak of.  Cleveland had no business winning the division, but did anyway.

As impressive as the Guardians' season was, though, I think Stephen Vogt finished a distant third in the voting.  Which isn't a knock on him or the job he did this season by any means.  It's more a compliment to the managers of the ALCS participants.  A compelling case can be made for both Dan Wilson, who guided Seattle to its first division title in 24 years, and John Schneider, who took the Blue Jays from last place in 2024 to the World Series in 2025.

This has been building in Seattle, so it wasn't a total shock to see the Mariners finally put it all together.  It was Dan Wilson, in his first full season as a Major League manager, who got them over the hump.  They trailed the Astros, who've owned the AL West for the better part of a decade, in early September.  Then they went into Houston, swept the Astros, and ran away with the division from there.  The Mariners were the best team in the American League for a good portion of the season, and Wilson got them closer to the World Series than they've ever been.

There's a clear winner in the American League, though.  The Blue Jays finished last in 2024 and entered this season wondering if they'd lose Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to free agency.  Vladdy signed a 15-year deal to stay in Toronto and that was just the start.  The Blue Jays were good, not great, in April and May.  Then they swept a four-game series with the Yankees in early June and the rest was history.  Toronto was dominant at home and their lineup was impossible to get out!  It all added up to 94 wins, the No. 1 seed in the AL, and their first pennant in 32 years...with mostly the same team that went 74-88 last season.

While they obviously weren't top three finalists, also worth a mention (since apparently they go five-deep in Rookie & Manager of the Year voting now) are Alex Cora of the Red Sox, Kansas City's Matt Quatraro and Mark Kotsay of the Athletics.  Boston made the playoffs despite completely overhauling the roster in June.  The Royals, who made the playoffs last season, nearly got back, and finished 82-80.  Kotsay, meanwhile, managed a vagabond team that was playing its home games in a Minor League park and kept the A's competitive, finishing 76-86.

To me, it's very clear.  John Schneider is your very deserving winner, with Dan Wilson as the runner-up.  Stephen Vogt was first last year, but will be third this year.  Rounding out my ballot, I've got Alex Cora in the No. 4 spot and Mark Kotsay at No. 5.

Terry Francona was a three-time AL Manager of the Year in Cleveland.  He retired after the 2023 season, but that retirement didn't last long and he was back in the dugout with Cincinnati this season.  Tito (with a little help from the Mets) guided the Reds to their first full-season playoff berth in 13 years.  No one thought the Cincinnati Reds would come anywhere close to the playoffs.  And they did it as an 83-win team that didn't have a single player hit .270 or with more than 25 home runs.

The Phillies were supposed to be good.  And they were.  What was supposed to be a tight race with the Mets was anything but.  They won the division by 13 games and had the second-best record in baseball at 96-66.  It was a collection of superstars that Rob Thomson managed masterfully all season long.  In four years with the Phillies, he's led Philadelphia to four postseason berths and back-to-back NL East titles.

If you'd told me that the Brewers team that got swept by the Yankees to start the season would end up with the best record in baseball this season, I wouldn't have believed you.  Yet there they were.  Finishing 97-65 and putting together a ridiculous 30-5 stretch in July and August.  They were the third-highest scoring team in baseball and allowed the third-fewest runs.  Their run differential was an absurd +172.  And they did it without a single superstar.  That's a credit to manager Pat Murphy, who could become the first back-to-back Manager of the Year since Bobby Cox in 2004-05.

Just like in the American League, that top three hits it right on the mark.  Another NL Central manager must enter the conversation, too--the Cubs' Craig Counsell.  And how about the job first-year manager Clayton McCullough did with the Marlins?  In a loaded NL East, Miami actually finished ahead of Atlanta and improved from 62 wins in 2024 to 79 this season.

So, will we end up with a back-to-back Manager of the Year or a four-time Manager of the Year?  I say four-time.  No one was surprised the Brewers were good.  Everyone was surprised the Reds were!  Another line to add to Tito's Hall of Fame plaque.  My NL rankings: 1. Francona, 2. Murphy, 3. Thomson, 4. Counsell, 5. McCullough.