2026 MLB Awards (Manager of the Year)

MLB Network may have inadvertently revealed the winner of every MLB award.  In fact, I don't think there's anything inadvertent about it.  Their schedule for the week includes games from this season.  On Wednesday, they're showing a Yankees game started by Cam Schlittler and a Brewers game started by Jacob Misiorowski.  Wednesday's also the day that the Cy Young winners are being announced.  But I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

Which games are on tap for Tuesday?  The Brewers and White Sox clinching their postseason berths.  So, I guess that means congratulations Pat Murphy and Will Venable.  Sure takes the suspense out of the Manager of the Year announcement, though.  Doesn't it?

For the record, I completely agree with the selection of Will Venable.  The White Sox had back-to-back 100-loss seasons in 2024-25.  This season, they made the playoffs.  They were in first place for a good portion of the season before being overtaken by Cleveland late in the year.  That's all the argument you need for why Will Venable is deserving of AL Manager of the Year.  Frankly, it shouldn't even be that close.

Murphy, meanwhile, stands to make history.  No skipper has ever won three straight Manager of the Year awards.  Until now.  The Brewers had the best record in the Majors, setting a franchise record with 103 wins.  Then came the postseason, when they went 11-2, had an eight-game winning streak, swept the two-time defending champion Dodgers in the NLCS for their first pennant in 44 years, then won the first World Series title in franchise history.  None of that counts for Manager of the Year, of course.  But it goes to show just how good things went in Milwaukee this season.

My vote for NL Manager of the Year wouldn't have gone to Murphy, though.  It would've gone to Don Mattingly.  The Phillies had high expectations coming into the season.  They were 9-19 on April 26.  That's when they replaced Rob Thomson with Mattingly.  And that's when the Phillies started playing the way everybody thought they would.  Sometimes the manager can make that much of a difference.  Which is why Philadelphia removed Mattingly's "interim" tag for next season.

The third National League finalist is Atlanta's Walt Weiss.  Weiss was the 1988 AL Rookie of the Year, which would put him in elite company as both a Rookie and Manager of the Year winner.  He didn't win, but he's still got a chance of joining that list in the future.  And if not for the seasons put together by the Brewers and Phillies, he'd be much more of a contender this year.  Weiss took over a Braves team that struggled last season and won the NL East as a first-year manager.

That top three in the NL is pretty clear.  If they were the top three on every ballot, it wouldn't surprise me.  There are a couple other names worthy of consideration, though.  One is another first-year skipper, the Padres' Craig Stammen.  San Diego had a blistering finish to go from fighting for a wild card to winning 90 games and hosting the Wild Card Series.  And do you want to know how many starting pitchers the Padres used this season?  Fourteen!

Also worthy of a mention is the Pirates' Don Kelly.  Pittsburgh was actually relevant this year.  In fact, the Pirates finished above .500 for the first time since 2018.  And they did it by going 15-9 in September.  In a division that includes the Brewers and Cubs.  The Pirates were in the wild card race until late in the season and only ended up six games out.  This despite Paul Skenes going just 10-11.

But still, the National League Manager of the Year race had a very clear top three.  Murphy may have been the winner, but he didn't get by first-place vote.  I actually have him third.  Mattingly No. 1 and Weiss No. 2.

Over in the American League, there was some thought that Kevin Cash might snag his third career Manager of the Year award.  The Rays had a rough 2025.  They had no stadium and finished in last place.  In 2026, it was a complete turnaround.  They had the best record in the AL and won the monster division that is the AL East thanks to their dominance at the repaired Tropicana Field.  Tampa Bay's pennant was well-earned.

Don Mattingly wasn't the only midseason interim replacement whose success earned him both the full-time gig and a Manager of the Year finalist nod.  It was the same thing for Boston's Chad Tracy.  The stories are remarkably similar, too.  The Red Sox were really bad when Alex Cora was fired.  They were still middling in June when they suddenly forgot how to lose, putting together a 32-5 stretch that thrust them into playoff position.

Cleveland's Stephen Vogt won this award in each of his first two seasons at the helm.  We know he obviously didn't make it three since he's not a finalist, but he easily could've been.  The Guardians had the lowest payroll in baseball, yet they once again made the postseason.  And, for the second straight year, they rallied in September to win the division after trailing for most of the season.

And, I know Yankees fans won't want to hear this, but Aaron Boone did a hell of a job this season!  Just consider the amount of injuries they had to overcome.  That vaunted starting rotation wasn't all pitching together until September.  Aaron Judge missed most of the year.  Yet they still finished with the second-best record in the AL.  Fans considered this season a disappointment because of their lofty expectations.  In reality, though, it really is kind of remarkable that this team won 93 games.

Will Venable's your very clear, very deserving winner here, though.  Nobody saw the White Sox coming.  Yet they went from a record 121 loss to the playoffs in just two years.  If that doesn't get you Manager of the Year, I don't know what does.  Rounding out my ballot are Cash second and Vogt third.