2014 Managers of the Year

Neither of the Rookie of the Year races brought much suspense.  Jose Abreu was unanimous and Jacob de Grom went in as the prohibitive favorite, although the margin was wider than I expected.  But the Managers of the Year?  That's anybody's guess.  Buck Showalter and Bruce Bochy are the favorites, but I'm not sure either one is a lock.  Especially in the AL, I expect the Manager of the Year vote to be the closest of the entire awards season.

All three finalists in the American League are deserving of the award.  A lot of people were calling for Mike Scioscia to be fired at the end of last season.  Then this season, he saw Oakland race out to a seemingly insurmountable lead in the AL West thru the All*Star Break.  But the Angels, despite a makeshift rotation, quietly chipped away at Oakland's lead and ended up with the best record in baseball.  Of course, many people have been expecting this out of Anaheim for a couple years, but you can't discount the job Scioscia did this year.

In any other year, we'd be talking about Mike Scioscia as a serious contender for AL Manager of the Year.  But, in 2015, he finished third.  This is a two-horse race between Buck Showalter and Ned Yost.  And, really, I'd be OK with either winning.

Buck Showalter almost won Manager of the Year honors after leading the Orioles to the wild card in 2012.  This year he took it a step further.  The Orioles won the AL East for the first time since 1997.  Despite having Chris Tillman as their No. 1 starter.  Despite losing their starting catcher to Tommy John surgery, their starting third baseman to a knee injury and their starting first baseman to stupidity.  Yet, this team that seemingly did nothing other than hit home runs and win walk-offs, never went away, winning a division that includes the Yankees and Red Sox and finishing with the second-best record in the AL.

A vote for Buck Showalter would be completely fine with me.  He did an amazing job in Baltimore this season and would certainly be a deserving winner.  But this choice is so close that it's almost a coin flip.  And my vote would go to the other guy.

This is nothing against Buck Showalter or how great a job he did this season.  But I'm going with Yost for a couple reasons.  Mainly, he changed the culture in Kansas City.  The Orioles were in the playoffs two years ago, so it didn't really surprise anyone that they were this good.  The Royals came out of nowhere.  Most people expected the Tigers to run away with the AL Central, but Kansas City wouldn't go away and Detroit had to wait until the last day to clinch. 

But most importantly, the Royals ended their 29-year playoff drought.  And Yost deserves a lot of the credit for that.  It all finally came together for a team and a city that had gotten so used to losing.  Ned Yost was a big part of that.  Voting was done after the regular season, so the Royals' run to Game 7 of the World Series doesn't count, but in my opinion, that doesn't matter.  The Kansas City Royals were the story of baseball this season.  Ned Yost should be the AL Manager of the Year.  Showalter a close second, Scioscia third.

Over in the National League, it's Bruce Bochy against two of the guys he beat in the playoffs, Clint Hurdle and Matt Williams.  Amazingly, Bochy has never won Manager of the Year before, so some are viewing this as somewhat of a lifetime achievement award.  But if we're only considering the regular season, I'm not sure Bochy's the way I would go. 

He worked wonders with that mix-and-match starting rotation and masterfully got around key injury after key injury.  But it looked for a while like the Giants and their archrival Dodgers were the two best teams in the National League, and we were looking forward to a great pennant race between the two.  Except San Francisco collapsed in September and ended up as the road team in the Wild Card Game.  Of course, it was an even-numbered year, so San Francisco won the World Series anyway, but, as I said before, the postseason doesn't count.  If it did, it would be the lefty that pitches for Bochy's team that we'd be talking about as MVP.

Clint Hurdle won last year and got the Pirates back to the postseason again, where they lost to the aforementioned Mr. Bumgarner in the Wild Card Game.  This might start to become a regular thing.

My vote wouldn't go to Hurdle either, though.  It would go to the former Giant, Matt Williams.  The job he did is very similar to the one Buck did across the Beltway.  So why do I think Williams deserves Manager of the Year and Buck doesn't?  Well, for starters, it's apples and oranges.  I also didn't say Buck doesn't deserve to win.  I just said Yost deserves to win it more.  But anyway, back to Williams.  He was a rookie manager, so that must be taken into consideration.  And he took a team loaded with talent to the best record in the National League, better than even the Dodgers team that most people thought was the Major Leagues' best.  The Nationals had that best record despite losing both Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman for extended periods.

Every button Matt Williams pushed this season worked.  And what he did was made even more impressive by the fact that he was the new kid on the block.  In a year where nobody really stood out head and shoulders above the others, I'll also give him credit for leading his team to the best record.

Bochy's probably going to win, if for no other reason than the fact that he's headed to Cooperstown (that was locked up with the third championship in five years), yet has never been Manager of the Year.  Even though this wasn't his best managing job.  I'd place Bochy second on my ballot, behind Williams and in front of Hurdle.