Orioles skipper Buck Showalter and Nationals skipper Matt Williams have been voted as the American League and National League Managers of the Year.
Showalter, 58, takes home his third Manager of the Year Award, with the others previously coming in 1994 with the Yankees and 2004 with the Rangers. His Orioles won 96 games this season in a year when many believed the Red Sox, who were the defending World Champions, and the Yankees, who spent a half-billion dollars in free agency, would be fighting for the division. Baltimore made it all the way to the ALCS before being ousted by the Royals.
Williams, meanwhile, will win the award in his first year on the job. The Nationals also won 96 games this season, though their postseason journey ended in the National League Division Series at the hands of the eventual World Champion Giants.
Pittsburgh’s Clint Hurdle and San Francisco’s Bruce Bochy finished second and third, respectively, in the NL balloting. The Angels’ Mike Scioscia and the Royals’ Ned Yost were the respective second- and third-place finishers in the AL.
Wish Matt had a better postseason..
I just want to say that was AWFUL what the writers did to Ned Yost.
Not one 1st place vote. Ridiculous.
I know he wasn’t perfect and made some real head scratching decisions, but he was the one that was responsible for bringing in Escobar and Cain in the Grienke trade. Not only that he the Royals swept the Angels and the Orioles.
I am sorry, I just don’t get that not one writer gave him a 1st place vote.
I just SMH!
The votes were in before the postseason started making the playoff performance irrelevant as this is a regular season award.
Yeah, I saw that. Maybe, I need to remain calm. =P
Still, I just wanted to say I thought they were a bit rough on him.
I know Yost makes mistakes, but still so do the rest of the managers.
Anyway…..
MW is a terrible manager. I’d love to be a manager with Stras, J-Zimm, Fister, Gio, and Roark. Meanwhile, the other NL east teams all fell apart this year. I could have managed this team to win the NL east. He showed his managerial acumen in the playoffs. I doubt MW will make it to the end of 2016 now that the other NL east teams are improving (well, not the Phils).
Yes, because four games in the playoffs and a loss to the eventual World Series champions trumps a 162-game body of work.
I assume you watched the games this year. I did. MW has Plan A, and when that fails, he goes to Plan A. And then Plan A again. Talent wins over 162 games and the Nats were the most talented team in the league.
I thought the exact same thing when I saw he won. It doesn’t take much to be a good manager when you have all the talent that the Nationals have.
The Nats lost three one-run ballgames in the playoffs, one of them on a home run in the 18th inning. The one game they won was over the best post-season pitcher of 2014 (Bumgarner). Over 45 innings Washington had 23 hits. That sounds like an offense being shut down by better pitching problem, not a Managerial one. And as far as the Nats being the most talented team in the league, I’d say the Dodgers were equally as talented and even more done in by a poor Manager.
Williams had the precedent of the Giants success of 2010 & 2012 to prepare him for that series. He should have known what he was getting into. But it didn’t seem like he had sufficiently prepared his offense for the challenge ahead. I was very disappointed in his postseason performance, and I’m not even a Nats fan (I just hate the Giants).
Since when was Matt Williams with the Giants in 2010 & 2012?
As a Mets fan who watched a lot of Nats games, I definitely agree with you.
People sometimes lose sight of how much being a manager is off the field and away from the public eye. For years, Bruce Bochy was ripped apart by Giants fans because he made boneheaded moves in managing his bullpen, keeping starters in too long and all sorts of decisions that are easy for us fans to criticize. But he has been at the forefront in establishing a great clubhouse culture, and the players are fiercely loyal to him. While he seems to be on his A-game in the playoffs, he still makes dozens of calls I don’t agree with during the season, but I now recognize that he does a great job at running that team. I’m not saying Matt Williams is a great manager, because I don’t know enough about him, his managing or the Nationals’ culture, but I know that most of the important things a manager does are in the clubhouse
Uh, Williams? Really? And how does Yost not finish ahead of at least Scioscia? Not sure how I feel about these choices, honestly. I’d have gone with Yost and Hurdle, personally.
How many players of KC get injured?
How many other teams made the playoffs for the first time in three decades?
So manager of the year should be determined by which team made the playoffs with the most injuries?
Sorry you are right, What I really mean how big was the challenge that he overcome to get to the past season.
What does Bochy have to do to win ML manager of the year? Matt Williams was handed a winning team with great hitting, starters, and bullpen. Bochy had to deal with losing Pagan, Cain, and Belt for parts or all of the season, had no 2B for 2/3 of the season, and had Timmy in the rotation…The Giants still made it to the playoffs when everyone wrote them off, while the majority expected the Nats to win their division…SMH
It was a head scratcher for me too, but I think not winning the division when he had a decent lead lost him some votes. Hands down best NL manager.
Win his division.
i think its because the nats had so many injuries to their starting lineup and still won over 90 games, thats what i think, i could be way off
They were in line with the Marlins and Braves with the injuries and then broke away once they were healthy. The other NL east teams were pretty terrible, especially after the all star break.
agreed i dont agree with the decision, im just taking a stab on what the voters may have thought
Yeah, I think it’s simply because the Nats had the best record. Easy to pick him when there was no other obvious choice (I would have gone for Hurdle)
Bochy has the WS ring–much better than MOY.
Too bad no love for Lloyd McClendon.
He is underrated. This award is a postseason only club right now, which isn’t fair. McClendon, Mike Redmond (Marlins), and Ron Roenicke (Brewers) all deserved better looks for voting.
“This award is a postseason only club right now”
This is the first time Buck won it when his team made the postseason. Before he managed the Yankees, Joe Girardi won it with the Marlins.
I think it has been going more so to managers who manage teams that have exceeded expectations.
Yeah, but Buck would’ve went to the postseason if not for the 94 Strike. Though I agree with the sentiment of the post.
If MLB is going to wait until after the post season to announce these awards then they need to factor the post season games into the results. To me, knowing what we know now these results are meaningless. If the award is voted on after the World Series, Bochy and Yost win running away.
Amazing to see a guy who got clearly out-managed in the post season win the moy.
Buck deserved it. No brainer in the AL. Glad to see they got it right, congrats Buck.
I probably would have given the NL Manager of the Year to Mike Redmond. They have a lot of young talent, but I’m impressed with how he manages that young group of guys. Help to hold things together when Fernandez went down due to injury and kept them relevant pretty much all season. If they could have a “Worst Manager of the Year” I’d give it to Fredi Gonzalez, but sadly no such award exists. In the AL, I don’t really have an issue with Buck. Maybe Lloyd could have more love, but eh.
Should I bet that one of the managers of the year in 2024 will be Buck Showalter?
Where’s the love for Bud Black? The guy managed the worst offense since the 1972 Texas Rangers? That’s not easy to do.
Impressive, I’m sure. Maybe if he had managed his team to a 2nd place finish he would have been a relevant choice, but back to back 3rd place finishes just doesn’t ‘justify’ the means to the ends. From the sportswriter standpoint, that is.
Well we know who wins in 2024
Ned Yost deserved it in the AL
23 hits in 45 innings–that’s on the players. They’re the ones up there swinging the lumber.
It’s the manager’s job to get the players prepared for the task ahead.