The Baseball Writers Association of America announced the results of the Manager of the Year balloting. Miami’s Skip Schumaker and Baltimore’s Brandon Hyde were the respective winners in each league. It’s the first such honor for both.
That’s apparent in Schumaker’s case, as the 43-year-old takes home the hardware for his first season on the job. The Marlins hired him off the Cardinals’ coaching staff last offseason. Miami was coming off a 69-93 showing but improved by 15 games in Schumaker’s first year. The Fish went 84-78 and secured the second Wild Card spot in the National League. It marked their first playoff appearance in a 162-game season since 2003.
Few anticipated Miami making that kind of run. They were widely perceived as the fourth-best team in the NL East entering the season. Their success came despite a -57 run differential, as Miami went a staggering 33-14 in one-run contests. How much of that is attributable to good sequencing is up for debate, although it stands to reason voters are giving Schumaker credit for his successful handling of the bullpen in so many late-game situations. The Fish were bounced in the Wild Card round by the Phillies.
While the Marlins were a surprise playoff team, the Orioles claiming the #1 seed in the Junior Circuit might have been even less expected. Baltimore had clearly positioned itself as a team on the rise following an 83-79 showing in 2022. Yet few projected them as favorites in what looked like a stacked AL East going into the year.
Hyde’s club nevertheless improved by 18 games, jumping to a 101-51 season. They ran down and held off the Rays to claim the division title. Baltimore stuck by Gunnar Henderson through some early-season struggles and saw the talented infielder blossom into a star. He was a unanimous choice for Rookie of the Year, while Adley Rutschman reinforced his place as an elite catcher in his second big league campaign. Kyle Bradish stepped forward as an unexpected staff ace, while top pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez had a promising second half.
The season didn’t end as the organization hoped. The O’s were swept in the Division Series by the eventual champion Rangers. (That’s not relevant for awards purposes, as the voting is conducted before the postseason.) Hyde’s club nevertheless made a clear statement they’re positioned as consistent contenders entering what’ll be his sixth year at the helm.
Schumaker edged past Craig Counsell (then of the Brewers) and Atlanta’s Brian Snitker in the NL voting. The finalists were joined by Torey Lovullo, Dave Roberts and David Bell in receiving at least one first-place vote. Hyde’s victory was moire resounding, as he picked up 27 of 30 first-place nods. The Rangers’ Bruce Bochy, who finished in second, got the other three selections. Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash finished in third place.
Full voting results: National League, American League
well deserved for Hyde! He was fantastic.
But…I thought the Marlins weren’t successful?
For us we were. Sure it was a little flukey but making it to the playoffs is making it to the playoffs. Especially a first time manager that over performed and got us to the playoffs. Also seems like he is building a good culture in the building. Well deserved imo, especially when the other options were guys who had good seasons on good teams.
Personally I thought you were too but several didn’t think so for some reason.
I knew when Schumacher was a player he would be a good manager someday.
Bring on the wooper doooper!!!
They weren’t, and don’t let any vegan progressive Obama voter tell you that they were! Just look at their WOMAN GM who quit because the team’s owner hired an entire level of management above her after she built a roster that made the postseason. What a loser snowflake!
@TheGoldenSombrero
Are you okay? I hear you and see you. I don’t know how you feel, but sometimes im overwhelmed by politics and world affairs. Baseball is one of my only refuges from the insanity of this world.
The Marlins sometimes really grind my gears. Somehow they have more WS titles in the last twenty five years than my Tigers. Their current skipper is good but is he really the manager of the year in the NL? Didn’t the DBacks, Reds, and even Braves overcome more uncertainty with their wins this year? I demand a recount of the ballots! This vote must have been rigged!
are you good? you could’ve said the whole think w/o the politics, the team did decent for what its worth and schumaker is a great coach who deserved this award cause he knows how to make a clubhouse fun, he was a great coach on the cardinals aswell!
Thought it would have been two completely different managers winning these
Hyde I can see in the AL, but I thought Lovullo was a lock in the NL.
Regular season award
I think super star propect Javier Wander knows it’s a regular season award? Bochy didn’t win in the AL and said I can see Hyde in the AL?
Cancer was the official sponsor of nascar? And Modelo is the new “king of beers”
What a joke of an award. Manager gets rewarded either for good luck or for the media being wrong about their players before the season. Some of the worst managers in the history of the game have won this award, You cannot say that about any of the player awards.
1 post and muted. That may be a new record.
You’re not sure? Ahahaha!
You don’t have to tell people you’re muting them every time you mute them. Just do it.
Well, they say that hard work puts you where good luck can find you.
And luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
Neither of which matter when God creates you just because he has a sense of humor and needs something to laugh at?
Where’s the remote? I need a new station
Definitely not like Rafael Palmeiro winning a gold glove in a season where he primarily DHed.
I’m not sure why anyone would argue against Skip winning. Were the Marlins expected to make the Playoffs coming out of the NL East?
Do we need to review all of the 2022-23 offseason posts and articles?
Why is the manager responsible for what the players did? He has to fill out of a lineup card of 9 players with only 12/13 players available to him. The players literally did all of the work.
@ghost
By that logic, you can boil literally any responsibility down to make it seem trivial.
It’s not like a manager just pencils in his top 9 hitters and best pitcher every game then takes a nap (otherwise you’d be right). A manager can win a game by leveraging a favorable matchup and lose a game by not replacing a player whose performance is suboptimal. You can argue how much a manager affects a game’s outcome, or that another manager did so better than Skip, but your assertion that managers do nothing is pretty weak.
The voters don’t base their votes on tactics. None of them are analyzing the moves managers make. They are simply voting based on which teams outperformed their own expectations. I used hyperbole in my point, but I’ll stand by my basic premise, which is that the players are responsible for who wins this award. The manager is just happenstance.
@ghost Just out of curiosity who would you have picked for MOY this year and why?
Wouldn’t voters need to still analyze outperformance based on expectations/projections? Please explain why some managers are paid millions in salary when one could go hire a high school coach for $80K to fill out a lineup card?
its concerning that people really think that skip isn’t deserving of this award, he’s a great coach and many of the NL coaches underperformed this year tbh, one coach i could say that might’ve deserved more or less is Lovullo
Well deserved by both.
Marlins really need to get an extension done with Shumaker. Did a fantastic job with a young group. Kept them tight all season and is very loving and caring coach. Sign him Miami
Nah, it isn’t necessary to get an extension done before the end of a manager’s contract. Signed: the Milwaukee Brewers.
Lovullo should’ve won.
MLB Awards voting is completed prior to the postseason, otherwise he would likely be the winner. Lovullo remained a strong candidate even before the playoffs, however, and did garner plenty of ballot support.
He managed a great postseason, but a rather mediocre regular season. In fact, there was a point when the DBacks nearly choked the playoffs away.
The Marlins also almost choked away their WC spot.
But the Marlins had a greater jump in season to season wins. They also did in a division in which 3 teams made the playoffs.
Our team simply being within a stone’s throw of the playoffs for 162 games was a miracle. Torey definitely should have won. Nobody in baseball did more with less than he did.
Regular season award
Very surprised that Bochy didn’t win. Both he and Hyde turned 100-loss teams into playoff contenders in record time.
I thought Bochy had it tougher. IE. meshing together a bunch of proven talent from other places with existing roster with goal of having a cohesive winning unit is a sketchy strategy. Case in point. Look at Mets. Case in point 2. Look at Yankees. Case in point 3. Look at Padres
Plus not all of the Rangers are all bought by money. Look at Josh Jung, Adolis Garcia, Evan Carter, Nathaniel Lowe, Jonah Heim, and Leody Taveras.
Jung, Carter, and Taveras came from the farms.
Garcia, Lowe, and Heim came from insignificant trades that turned out big.
Heck, Adolis was DFA’d at one point.
People complain that bad teams such as the Orioles need to spend more money; but when the Rangers do, they are pissed.
I’m a Diamondbacks diehard from day one, and I agree with you. Your Rangers are an impeccably-constructed team, from Jung and Carter to Seager and Scherzer. Chris Young is a great GM, but it was Bruce Bochy’s expert touch that put your roster together for a championship run. I’m happy for you guys.
Bochy had more pressure on him because of his profile. Hyde was still virtually unknown outside of the AL East.
@King; agree to disagree on this one. In Texas, the GM got the heck out of the way and let the manager call the shots on game day. In Baltimore, yes, Hyde is the manager (and a good one) but IMO it’s more of a group effort as to how a game plan plays out
Bocy was given one of the most talented rosters in baseball. Props to him for balancing egos, but really this roster was built to win no matter who the manager was.
thats a fair argument tbh but the orioles are the orioles tbf
Ross got robbed.
If he only made the playoffs…
Anyway…
1st year euphoria for the marlins manager. Next year the reality will set in.
Especially since they forced their GM out.
I think the one thing nobody takes into account are the teams like the Braves: dodgers etc that were expected to win and won the jobs their mangers did. Sometimes winning when expected to win is harder than a team that was under .500 the year before that improved
I’d agree in part that it’s easy to overlook a manager that was expected to win, but that’s a pretty hard sell that winning with a loaded roster like the Braves or Dodgers would be harder than making the playoffs with the Dbacks or Marlins, with lesser talent and margin of errors.
This is Garbage.!!!…of all the times Kevin Cash won or should’ve won, this was the year he deserved it the most. Nobody dealt with more injuries and or drama than what the Rays put on his plate. I’m referring to the regular season only.
Look on the bright side: With Tampa’s finances, if Cash won an award, it would cost them a third starting pitcher and a fourth outfielder.
You had to know they were going to win, with the dominant pitching staff. The fact they were able to stay healthy all season really helped too.
What’s even more disturbing is Boone & Bucky didn’t receive a single vote, goodnight nurse! Ahahaha!
Why, oh why did the Cardinals keep Marmol and let Schumaker get away?
Thank you for Sandy and Skip…and by extension, Jazz!
Sincerely,
Marlins fans
But… but… they didn’t win the world series! We’re celebrating mediocrity?
How is Michael Schumaker doing these days?
“Hyde’s victory was moire resounding”
Grate victory, that!
😛
The last four NL managers of the year have been fired.
To be fair, rare is the manager who is able to walk away on his own terms.
Just here to remark Craig Counsell has now finished second in the voting 4 times and never won.
Just makes me giggle.
ANOTHER manager from the Padres system that accomplished a heck of a lot of stuff.
Does this not speak volumes about AJ Preller? AJ Hinch, Dave Roberts, even Bruce Bochy interviewed before they hired Bob Melvin and Melvin left the team early because of AJ Preller.
I am very glad for him, Skip that is. When they took them on as a coach after retiring, I remember reading up on him and he seemed like a really quality guy and obviously went through a wonderful Cardinals system where they learn how to play baseball the right way. Or at least, they used to.
Hopefully this isn’t a bad sign for Skip. The last 3 NL Managers of the Year:
2022: Buck Showalter, NY Mets
2021: Gabe Kapler, San Francisco
2020: Don Mattingly, Miami
Interesting that Hyde can win this award considering what the perception of him was when he managed a 110 loss team and a 108 loss team. The Orioles also had a ridiculous 1-run game record and a great extra inning record (extras are nearly coin flips with the ghost runner). They could have won 90 games with a little less luck. For him specifically I guess someone had to deploy the bullpen effectively and decide which of the several platoons the Orioles had would be effective for each game.
But with Hyde as an example, I don’t think he’s as bad as a 110 loss team nor as good as a 101 win team would indicate because a lot of that depends on what personnel the manager has to deploy. No manager is. There aren’t many truly innovative managers today (by innovative I mean someone like Earl Weaver using a certain approach and stats at a time when no one else really was). But he’s at least decent as a bad manager can kill a good team – see Phil Regan, 1995.