The Baseball Writers Association of America announced that Guardians’ skipper Stephen Vogt and Brewers’ manager Pat Murphy were named the respective leagues’ Managers of the Year.
Both men took the award after leading their teams to Central division titles in year one. Vogt took the reins for the Guardians within a year and a half of retiring as a player. He spent one season on Seattle’s staff as bullpen coach before Cleveland tabbed him to replace future Hall of Famer Terry Francona. Vogt took over a team that had a much weaker rotation than the Guardians customarily sport, especially after Shane Bieber went down two starts into the season.
Expectations outside the organization generally weren’t very high. Cleveland nevertheless ran away with the AL Central. They built a lead as big as nine games by the end of June and didn’t look back. The Guardians cruised to a 92-win season, taking 16 more games than they had in 2023. They outscored opponents by 87 runs, largely on the strength of an elite bullpen. Vogt’s relief group easily led the majors with a 2.57 earned run average. The Guardians nabbed the #2 seed in the American League to secure a first-round bye.
Awards voting occurs before the start of the postseason, so the playoffs weren’t a factor in these honors. Cleveland held serve by defeating the upstart Tigers in the Division Series. They dropped a five-game set to the top-seeded Yankees in the Championship Series. While it didn’t end as hoped, it was a much more successful season than most people envisioned.
Vogt rather handily won the support of voters. He nabbed 27 of the 30 first-place selections. Kansas City’s Matt Quatraro and Detroit’s A.J. Hinch were the only others to receive a first-place vote in the America League. Quatraro and Hinch finished second and third, respectively. Joe Espada, Aaron Boone, Mark Kotsay, Rocco Baldelli and Alex Cora all appeared on at least one ballot.
The story was much the same in the National League. Murphy was in his first year at the helm. Like Vogt, he took over for one of the sport’s most respected managers. Craig Counsell departed to sign with the Cubs, leaving Murphy in charge of a dugout for the first time since an interim stint with the Padres in 2015. As with Cleveland, Milwaukee’s formerly vaunted rotation had been thinned by injury and trades.
The Brewers got success out of unheralded starters Tobias Myers and Colin Rea. Their bullpen was arguably the best in the National League. Despite losing Devin Williams for the first half of the season, Milwaukee relievers led the NL with a 3.11 ERA that trailed only Cleveland’s mark overall. The Brewers outscored opponents by 136 runs to post a 93-69 record. They essentially replicated their results from Counsell’s final season and grabbed their third NL Central title in four years.
Milwaukee’s year ended with a bitter defeat. Williams’ blown save against the Mets in the Wild Card round left them with a first-round exit for the second straight year. That’s not a factor in the voting, of course, and it’s not as if anyone would fault Murphy for turning to his star closer in that situation anyhow.
Murphy rather remarkably becomes the first Brewers’ manager to win the award. Counsell has surprisingly never won that honor. As with Vogt, Murphy took 27 of 30 first-place spots. San Diego’s Mike Shildt, New York’s Carlos Mendoza and Philadelphia’s Rob Thomson each picked up one first-place nod. Shildt and Mendoza placed second and third, respectively. Torey Lovullo landed in fourth overall, while Thomson rounded out the top five. Brian Snitker, Dave Roberts and Oli Marmol also received votes.
Full voter breakdowns courtesy of the BBWAA.
i really think it should have gone to quatraro & mendoza
Mendoza got robbed!
No he didnt… Brewers were projected 3rd or fourth in the central and won the division easily. Postseason results don’t factor in…..
There’s something I’m not understanding about how this shook out. The Brewers are a perennial contender in the weakest division, I’m not finding 93 wins THAT impressive that he was the clear cut front runner.
In my very-biased eyes being the best team in baseball for 4 months and coming from 11 games under .500 to reach playoffs is more impressive for a 1st year manager.
Don’tBeDumb;
Huh?
The Mets are a perennial contender and had the highest payroll in MLB (20% higher than the free spending Dodgers). The Brewers were 23rd in payroll at about 30% of what the Mets paid out.
The Brewers started the season after trading their ace pitcher for 2 rookies (one that was injured for most of the year) because they’re a small market team and knew they were going to lose him anyway. Their other ace pitcher was out all season due to surgery. The starting pitchers they began the season with looked awful on paper. As for their position players, most were youngsters that were still developing their games (and still are).
The Brewers played smart fundamental baseball – defense, running the bass, moving runners around. Their pitching got better as the season moved on.
You think what happened was automatic? I’d suggest that the Mets roster to start the season was massively more experienced / established. Sure, give their manager credit, I like him a lot. But the Mets won 4 less regular season games than the Brewers; and don’t give me the softer schedule part because the number of inter-division games was cut and all teams in MLB played games against all other teams.
Mr. Murphy did a great job.
Indeed Murphy did. If someone is truly arguing for Mendoza as MOY (he did a fine job), they are simultaneously arguing that Mendoza should be 2nd in voting and Doc Roberts should have won the NL MOY.
Actually the Brewers were predicted to finish 4th or 5th with a couple people saying 3rd..
It was a no doubter for Murphy being the pick in the NL. Anyone who doesn’t see that is either a cub fan or doesn’t know anything about baseball.(I know they’re the same).
@ Sam
Can’t have it both ways, if the Mets win it’s payroll but if they lose it’s lol Mets dumpster fire.
Again, can’t have it both ways!
BTW this is no way discrediting Pat Murphy, he did a great job.
The payroll argument doesn’t really hold a lot of water. A large reason why the Mets payroll was so high is because they were paying guys who were not even on the roster this year, who had left the club before Mendoza even took over. You can’t knock a guy for that.
@AgentF
fangraphs.com/roster-resource/payroll/mets?season=…
It absolutely holds water. After accounting for players no longer on the team they were well over $260M for 2024. Less than $10M under Dodgers before accounting for what they paid for players not on the team.
You are not understanding that Milwaukee lost Woodruff and Burnes and was projected in Vegas to win 76.5 games yet still won 93? How can you possibly think a team projected for 76.5 wins was a front runner?
Offseason projections mean nothing. He inherited a playoff team from 2023. What Mendoza did, MANAGING the Mets all the way back from below 0.500 to one step shy of the World Series, was amazing and worthy of manager of the year!
If you take away the Mets dead money, they still had a huge payroll. They paid a lot of FA in 24. Most on one-year deals. Their GM deserves more credit than their manager.
@poppopts How do offseason projections mean nothing?? They assess the state of the team factoring current roster going into new season and they accept for losses or additions to rosters. And a team making the playoffs the season prior while it is worth mentioning and a consideration, still had losses to roster factored against it.
Vegas also has season prop bets based off of projections. By and large and as a whole they are wildly profitable year in and year out. So any notion that projections are meaningless is absolutely inaccurate. Billions in profit are derived annually off projections.
If your a cubs fan what you just said must really be sad lol that means your team is an absolute joke
Are we really discussing the Mets money vs the brewers???? It’s. Not even close…. Can we compare the pirates to the dodgers next????
@mustache It’s crazy that it needed to even be mentioned. They spent an extra $100M+ just on players on the 2024 roster who actually played. That’s without trying to somehow quantify or give a value to the extra roster spots they were able to free up essentially paying for mulligans on said roster spots. Which absolutely has value as they are a finite asset. They also compiled other values by way of prospects while taking those mulligans. That again has some value as it allows them to address free agency with more options. Having known young talent in farm system allows teams to not have to balance what they ll also need in years to come. Possibly at times forcing into longer deals then they’d necessarily like. Not that those contracts have or possibly will ever be a worry or for larger markets teams. But are absolutely something that smaller market team’s have to keep a pulse on with every deal.
I’m not trying to paint what the Mets have done in a negative light either. I love what they did. They filled needs with higher AAV short term deals to address needs without trading assets for their future away. They then accepted it failed dumped and ate money. Not only saving the talent they had but adding to it. Great for the franchise and the fans. Now whether it’s good for baseball, there’s arguments both for and against the huge inequality in spending. But it has been going on long before free agency was even a thing. And yes sucks for the fans of the smaller market teams. The owners of those teams and likely numerous generations of their families are still and will still one day be filthy rich, so they ll be OK.
But all and all some of the attempts to justify on this thread are ridiculous to say the least. There are also a few with some merit. And all the MGRs who garnered any support for MOY did good to great things and did their jobs well. Just seems the right 2 were chosen all things considered.
Mendoza had the benefit of Francisco Lindor and his supporting cast to offset the pitching deficencies. Murphy lost his best player, Christian Yelich, for the season shortly after the all-star break, had a supporting cast of first- and second-year players and had to rebuild the pitching staff on the fly and on a low budget.
Mendoza lost his ace for 99 percent of the season. The pitching rotation was held together by spit, glue and wishes.
Cohen’s _Walletm AgentF, NMK 2;
Please understand something….
The Brewers had 2 aces. One had surgery and was out the entire season. The other they had to trade before the season started because: 1) They were going to lose him in FA after the 2024 season; and 2) They couldn’t afford to pay his 2023 salary.
The Mets didn’t have to trade any of their players because they couldn’t afford to pay them. In fact, the pitcher the Brewers couldn’t afford to pay is Corbin Burnes: One of 3 aces the Mets are looking to sign this year for far more money than the Brewers couldn’t afford to pay.
Tell us one player the Mets lost in 2024 because they couldn’t afford to pay his salary. In fact, tell us one player the Mets had to trade since Mr. Cohen bought the franchise because they couldn’t afford to pay him. Your ace pitcher in 2024 was Kodai Senga, that you signed in FA for a salary teams like the Brewers could never afford to pay. Nothing wrong with that – but don’t give me or any reasonable person that follows MLB the ridiculous argument that the Mets outrageous payroll doesn’t matter.
I love David Stearns, and because he’s there the Mets developed Alvarez and Vientos last year (in past years they would have been batched up in trade for a name player with a large salary by a small / mid-market team that needed to dump their salary). He was able to pick up Acuna in 2023 because Cohen overpaid for Schurzer. Furthermore, Stearns hired Mendoza that I doubt Cohen and any other Mets PoBO would have hired.
Mendoza did a fine job. In the eyes of people that cover MLB and vote for awards Murphy did a better one.
Can you kids read? “MURPHY TOOK 27 OF 30 FIRST-PLACE VOTES.”
Why do NYC baseball fans always kvetch when they can’t buy something?
Samuel, I agree with all the points you’re making but Stearns did not make the Scherzer trade. He was still with the Brewers then. The Scherzer trade happened at the trade deadline in 2023, Stearns took over with the Mets in October of 2023.
The Brewers used 17 different starting pitchers due to injuries
#bjhaas1977 I was glad to see that objective and outside great sports minds saw that the Mets won in spite of Mendoza and not because of him. If it wasn’t for a string of miracle hits the Mets would have gone nowhere.
I am a long long time Mets fan and I enjoyed every bit of it right down to Howie’s calls.
They got it right.
Comments here are interesting. I agree with you BJ that Mendoza got robbed. Murphey beat out a weak NL Central that the Brewers have dominated for 5 plus years. Okay… The Mets had a makeshift pitching staff and had an unreal second half in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year and they were better than the Phillies and Braves, who were both better than the Brewers.
If the Brewers faced the Braves in this years playoffs, the Brewers would have won. They were too injured and exhausted to be considered a threat to really any team.
You say the Mets had a makeshift pitching staff, the Brewers had 17 different starting pitchers with Freddy Peralta being the only one with any sort of pedigree coming into this season that didn’t get injured for more than half of the year.
This was also a rebuilding year for the Brewers as Woodruff was already going to miss the entire year and Burnes was traded for two young pieces. This year was a transition year, very similar to the year the Mets said they were going to have.
People say that Mendoza outmanaged Murphy in the Wild Card as if the series didn’t come down to the last inning. To me that isn’t getting outmanaged as the Brewers were rock solid all year and the Mets finally decided to play up to their potential the lsat few months of the year.
Yeah, no. Mendoza was a distant 3rd and should have been. Murphy easily did the best managerial job in NL and the voting reflects it.
Mendoza had a pitching staff that was basically Jose Quintana and no one else, a bullpen of a meh Diaz and no one else, and Lindor and Alonso. To act as if he was somehow less deserving than the other two is absolutely idiotic.
The Brewers lost their ace, had 13 rookies on the Opening Day roster and won their division they were supposed to finish 3rd or 4th in by double digit games. To say Mendoza deserved it over that is absolutely idiotic.
Happy to take Manaea (3.5 era), Severino (3.9 era) and David Peterson (2.90 era) off your hands for nothing, since apparently they dont count for you as well. Get bent with Quintana was your only pitcher.
@swis….. Well one person’s opinion is just that. Shildt, Murphy, Mendoza, Snitker, and Roberts all did great jobs as managers of their respective NL teams.
How many voters actually supported each one of those is another story.
In terms of what each manager did with the team assembled by the FO (and money spent of course), Murphy is far ahead. The other managers I listed had much greater payrolls.
Snitker and Roberts had to deal with far more injuries to key players than Mendoza’s roster faced.
Re. “Only Quintana,” Peterson was quite effective once he was healthy.
Feury;
NYC baseball fans are the least knowledgeable in America. They think their 2 teams are how MLB rolls. They have no sense of perspective. Everything comes down to their teams need to spend more money (most fans think that way) which is fine because they believe it’s the dream of all good players want to play in either NYC…..or Boston.
It’s pathetic.
Exactly Peterson played like a lefty jacob degrom I was happy with his performance.
@svi The Mets had 3 SPs who they signed as free agents for 8 figured AAV deals who all started 30+ games. Amy notion that it was some miraculous assembly of pitching starts done by sheer talent of a MGR is laughable. They got 94 starts that they sought out in free agency and paid quiet well.
Yes the Mats dealt with Senga’s injury, but almost every team dealt with an injured rotation member. The only team I can think of that lost almost nothing from rotation would be the Royals. Other than KC any team who put even a shred of effort into assembling a roster even half worthy of viewing lost someone meaningful or an overall meaningful # of games.
Also after losing both Burnes and Woody before the season started, the Brewers had to use 17 different starting pitchers because of injuries. These people just don’t pay attention to the Brewers so they have no idea how unfathomable their season was this year.
LOLOL The Brewers traded their ace before the season (Burnes) and their other ace (Woodward) was recovering from shoulder surgery. They also lost their best player (Yelich) midway through the season. They started the season with 13 rookies on the roster. They had to use 17 different starting pitchers this season because of injuries.
Just admit you don’t pay attention to the Brewers so you have no idea how unfathomable their season was this year.
Amazing how no one so far has even mentioned Hinch.
Hinch did well but of the three teams in the AL, his improved the least (they won 8 more games than last year; Cleveland won 16 more and KC won 30 more). You could make an argument for all of them though.
Samuel
Bro I’m sorry you got gonorrhea and mugged when you visited NYC in 2003 but put your bias away for the sake of conversation.
“NYC baseball fans are the least knowledgeable in America” Are you suggesting we compare levels of intelligence between New York City and Milwaukee Wisconsin? Do you really want to have this discussion?
“Why do NYC baseball fans always kvetch when they can’t buy something?” is in the same comment where you mostly complain about the Brewers not being able to spend as much as the Mets lmao.
Do you really think you comprehend a city of over 8 million people because you watched Friends and Frasier? Nobody says kvetch except hicks impersonating fictional new yorkers
@avengerr I really expected Hinch to get at least a little support for the crazy run they ended with. But I can see why people overlooked him. The majority of the season the Tigers struggled when they were getting much more playing time from older veteran players.
Post trade deadline when it seemed it was just the young players getting playing time and experience they came together and went on a tear. Hopefully it will carry over into next season. Aug and Sept was some of the most exciting non playoff games I’ve witnessed as a Tigers fan. I vaguely remember 84, just remember watching final out with my Dad. 2006 was very exciting as a whole but they didn’t close season with every game being so meaningful for weeks like last season was. The only one that really rivals it would be 87 and the one game playoff against the TOR before getting trounced by MIN.
Disagree about Mendoza. Mets had the highest payroll in baseball. Yes. A lot of that money was for Verlander and Scherzer, but even without dead money they were spending a ton. They deserve a GM of the year award, not manager. Murphy finished with better regular season results with far less money and talent.
Where to begin???
NL east was alot tougher than central. And mayb toughest in mlb. 3 playoff tms. Yea stearns deserves GM of year bec nobody in their right mind predicted rejects like severino, manea,quintana,peterson, bader, tyrone taylor, jose iglesias, jd martinez were gonna go from 11 gm under 500 in june to best tm in mlb 4 months & postseason. Nobody is shocked by brewers they are perennial div winners. Not taking anything away from Milwaukee & murph, great job. But mets had stunning turnaround & alot of it is credit to manager who instilled new culture & spirit & pressed all the right buttons. Distant 3rd in voting is an insult. Pls stop bringing up $ & payroll. 1st of all it means nothing, its abt the players on the field. 2nd, several major players mets paid arent even on the team. In fact $125mil for players injured or traded. 3rd, brewers lost their ace? I guess ppl have amnesia. Mets lost their ace too to injury all yr. 4th, mets breakout star was vientos who made 500k this yr so shut up about payroll for f sake. 5th stop acting like experts for f sake. Stop calling ppl idiots for having opinions different than yours & stop bringing up vegas odds , who gives a f. Murph won, mendoza lost. Guess what. Mendoza beat murph when it mattered most. Enjoy the MOY award. Mets had alot more fun finishing 2 wins shy of the WS
I’m not a Brewers fan. MOY is a regular season award. Playoff results mean nothing here. The Brewers had a winning record against the Braves and Mets.
The Brewers were missing more key players to injury than the Mets were. The Brewers payroll was significantly lower.
The votes weren’t even particularly close, but they got this one right. Mendoza did a good job and deserved votes, but he’s no MOY.
@john Bringing up Vientos and the paltry sum he made kind of further exaggerates the point about Mets spending. Even with players who were basically free such as Vientos and taking away the dead $ on traded players they still out spent the Brewers by over $100M with players who were on 2024 roster.
Yes most remember Senga missed the season which obviously was a blow. It was not as impactful as losing both Woodruff and Burnes. Injuries aside the Mets got 94 starts out of the free agents with 8 figure AAV$. So the Mets by all means put far more resources into bolstering their pitching.
You might not like hearing Vegas odds mentioned, but they are absolutely noteworthy. Prop Bets bring in billion$ in profit year in and year out. So they are proven to be by and large more accurate then not.
With a name like Vogt the AL winner seemed preordained.
I would vote for Vogt. How did the Guardians lead the division all year without Shane Bieber? “I believe in Steven Vogt,” who was such a clear leader even when he was still catching in Oakland.
And with the Giants, Brewers, etc,
Did love his last AB was as an A. So fitting
the best part was that the ball left the yard on that last AB.
Both the first and last hits of his career were home runs in Oakland.
crazy: Better than Vitto’last AB.
It seems like lay persons decide on manager of the year as the manager of the team that did better than prognosticated on Spring Training, guess that’s ok
@MLB To word that differently; the teams that exceeded expectations of nearly all writers, analysts, fans, and pundits. Then yes Manager of the Year is determined usually by selecting a team that exceeded prior analysis of teams judged off of experience, talent(or lack thereof), financial re$ouce$, etc…
By no means tho is it determined by some random group of individuals unfamiliar with MLB by a sheer blind guess. Which is what you are subtly alluding to. These selections were based on teams that exceeded the reasonable expectations of most familiar with the sport based off of talent and resources.
Honorable mention goes to Pedro Grifol. He lead his team to break a long standing record that most teams will never come close to.
Southside STAAAAAND UP!
McGinty: They got rid of Grifol. Now if they would get rid of that announcer (whose name I can’t remember because he’s not memorable), that would be equally as nice. If, that is, the Sox are ever on TV again. Thanks, jer, for sticking it to Sox fans once again.
Yes, I’m aware that Grifol was fired, Sizemore took over and they have since hired Venable. It was a joke. The announcer is John Schriffen and he sucks.
Leading a 56-106 team to an 86-76 record is still a very impressive achievement. Surprised Quartraro didn’t win.
It is impressive. The second most impressive season by a manager in the AL. the award is for 2024 not the “how much better than last year are we” award. Based on 2024 the vote is correct
Award not based on numbers. A popularity contest in the AL?
@Jim I’d say there are #s and exceeding of most preseason analysis of both teams that support the winners. Both are very well deserving based off both.
I would have expected Hinch to get some support behind Vogt, but nowhere close to winning. Just thought the historic run young Tigers roster closed on would have garnered a little support. But considering how much the team struggled until Aug and with the veterans playing, I can see why people overlooked Hinch.
They got it right for once. When I look at this award I don’t just look for the manager who improved the most. I’m also looking for guys I feel are going to actually be good managers and not one-year wonders. I picked both of these guys because they can sustain success despite low payrolls. And Murphy was an afterthought compared to Counsell but I bet the Cubs wished they had him now instead. And Vogt followed a HOF manager.
@remember Where is the empathy for all those objectively complaining because awards did not go to their teams?? That is just unfair much like life can be at times. What’s next we stop giving trophies to all….
I agree with you though both MGRs were stepping into shadows in their positions and projections were both team doing worse. They also overcame injuries to an extent like pretty much all teams did to varying degrees.
I thought Hinch would ve got some support and maybe that’s my biased wanted to see something that truly wasnt. But I felt he could possibly get some support for how the young roster historically rallied. But anyone supporting him would have to overlook what he wasn’t able to do for majority of the season with more experienced and costly veterans. The same types of pros and cons could be said of many other MGRs as well if one is being subjective. But all and all both of them were well deserving selections for the award.
Huge Stephen Vogt fan and have been for years. Having watched him glued to study managers for multiple teams, popular teammate everywhere and knowledgeable catcher I predicted he’d be a good Manager. Congrats to Mr Vogt! Great guy
real ones picked hinch and mendoza
No they didnt. Wasnt close and it shouldnt have been.
Real ones as in 3 whose vote matter more than your opinion? Ok fella real ones win the day
Carlos Mendoza was robbed.
No he wasnt. Not even close. And shouldnt have been.
Oh ok thanks for clearing that up .. 18 times….in a single thread …. Without adding any new information
Dude. C’mon. Stop being a homer. The Mets were god awfil foe the first 2 months kf the season with a payroll tover 300 million. The Brewers had 13 rookies on their opening day roster, a pitching syaff you’ve never heard of, and lost their ace, and manager, with the 23rd ranked payroll in the game. The Mets were great to end the year, but Mendoza shouldnt have won this, not even close.
27 of the 30 voters think you are wrong. And I didnt even mention the fact that didnt have Devin Williams until post AS break.
I love being told not to be a homer by some dude who is foaming at the mouth over winning manager of the year lmao.
I already admitted to being biased so thats not the own you think it was. I asked the question because I was looking for info why the vote went so hard the other way, not a breakdown of the vote totals. You can relax now.
See that’s the problem though…. small market fans cant relax, ever. We have to dig through pages of stuff before our teams are even MENTIONED, because even when the Mets lose 95 games (not this year) they get 20x (minimum) the coverage teams like Milwaukee and Cleveland get. So when those same big market fans come in and start pounding the table to demean and belittle the accompishments that FINALLY get those small market teams ANY recognition whatsoever, we can’t relax. Because this right here is probably the last time you’ll hear about the Brewers and Guardians until the first series they play against Chicago, LA or NY next season. This isn’t YOUR fault, and I wouldnt ever pretend it was, but to “relax”, that’s a luxury only big market team fans in baseball can ever enjoy. The rest of us sit here and wonder if we’ll ever get to even sniff what you have year in and year out. Because in all likelihood, the answer to that is we never will.
Go fishing or something jfc
You do know there Mets lost their ace as well? You repeating that isn’t the point you think your making.
He didn’t need new information he was using the same information to answer the same comment. No new info required while responding to the same 18 posts.
@Don The Brewers did well despite them having over $100M less invested into their roster opposed to cost of players still under contract and on the Mets in 2024. They lost played 2024 no longer having the top 2 arms in their rotation and did not actively seek any true remedy for those loses via free agency or trade.
Both selections for this award were well deserving. Cases could be made for others, but I don’t see any of those cases being as strong as Vogt and Murphy’s.
Pretty much every team dealt with injuries to an extent. Most contenders put much more effort into acquiring talent to fill the voids left by injury or free agency. The majority of those teams invested far more in assembling their rosters either financially and/or parting with young controllable talent both before and after accounting for injury.
Both Vogt and Murphy also stepped into huge shadows as far as who they replaced. All of that considered it’s just hard to see any Manager in either League having a stronger case than the 2 chosen for the award.
I agree that Pat Murphy was the rightful winner but to say Mendoza was “not even close” is histrionics. Mendoza did an excellent job in what was supposed to be a soft rebuild year. Most people didn’t even pick them to be .500. They went 67-40 after late May. No reason to knock Mendoza here.
@rollercoastertycoon Histrionics? Cashing in on that word of the day calendar!
Mario Mendoza could not hit!
AJ Hinch
Tommy Lasorda was robbed!
Jack Clark and Ozzie Smith approve this message.
I remember Lasorda caught on camera picking his nose in the dugout during a playoff game years ago!
When the guy who won it gets 27 first place votes no one was robbed. It wasn’t close.
Manager of the Year is kind of an anti-award. It’s not uncommon for the winner to be fired in a couple years anyway. If you go 70-90 for a couple years no GM is going to think “He was Manager of the Year so maybe he’ll snap out of his funk”.
Oli Marmol received a vote, wow.
Marmol is surprising. Rocco Baldelli getting a vote or multiple is *insane*.
Props for managing to get an extension. Heist of the decade.
Did Oli Marmol’s momma have a vote or something?
@Texas Outlaw I said the same thing. Whoever voted for him should be removed from any committees in the future. He didn’t deserve anything
Keith Law from the Athletic. Maybe he was trolling
Those who voted got it right. Quit the whining!
IMO, Vogt deserved it, but Kotsay should’ve gotten some votes as well. A 19-game is a lot. And being out-spent by $100M+ by the Angels, and finishing ahead of them, is always fun.
Hats off to the winners. Everyone on the list had a great year.
In the NL, I can think of several candidates, but Shildt feels like he made the difference.
Schildt did take a team to a noticeably better record after losing possibly their best hitter and the Cy Young winner from the previous year.
I think Schildt connects with the players very well. I also think that’s one of the most important attributes for a manager.
The brewers won a bunch of games in the worst division in baseball. Shildt got hosed.
The worst division in baseball? That division was a combined 14 games over .500. The NL East was only 2 games over .500. The AL Central was 35 under .500, and the AL West was 43 games under .500. So how are you objectively determining that the NL Central was the worst division in baseball?
So by your metric you are claiming the NL Central was a better division than the NL East with the braves, Mets, and Phillies? All 3 of those teams are better than the brewers.
Umm…. might want to check your stats there champ…. Milwaukee was 5-1 (6-3 including postseason) vs the Mets, 4-2 against the Braves and 2-4 vs the Phillies… objectivly that says to me the Brewers were 11-7 (12-9 including postseason) against those 3 teams…. when the team you say is “worse” has a .611 winning percentage against the teams you claim are “better”…. not sure how you can back up your claim
In other words they lost to the Mets in the playoffs, won a couple games against the braves who were devastated by injuries, and lost to the Phillies. Cool argument, kid.
I mean…. you play the games, you get results…. the results are the Brewers were better than 2 of those teams. Calling people names doesnt make you right. Get a better argument and come back to us.
Like “champ” hahahahah you hypocrite. I don’t need a better argument.
You are right! You dont need a”better argument”…. you just need AN ARGUMENT, because so far you havent presented one worth anything… if you want to bring the postseason into it… the Phillies and Brewers won the same number of postseason games this year, ONE. So that solves nothing. The Braves didnt make the postseason so they are, in your words, “objectively” not even a part of the conversation. So your best argument so far is that the Mets who lost twice as many games to the Brewers as they won, are better, which, I mean, c’mon you arent a better team when you go 3-6 vs the other team, noatter when those wins come. That’s just literal facts. And just so you know, the Brewers lost more man days to injury this season than the Braves… so your other argument falls apart there too…. by no “objective” (again your word not mine) metric can you say the Braves were better than the Brewers this year. So you are still wrong.
I’m wrong the Braves were a Wild Card team so I guess that counts as being a playoff team
We’re comparing divisions. Those 3 all made the playoffs (or at least the play-in) and were almost 90 win teams while the cubs and the cardinals were barely .500. Now go away.
I was hoping for Schildt in the National League. Murphy is also good. This has to sting a little bit for the Cubs.
The important thing to remember is that it is a bunch of baseball writers looking back and judging the opinions they had about teams at the beginning of the season against how the teams finished at the end of the season and that’s about it.
The teams that most outperform the expectations of the writers usually get the votes, if one doesn’t agree with their preseason predictions, it’ll seem off.
Deserved.
The commonality between the 2 winners:
Small market teams that build their teams around the bullpen.
Pitching is changing in MLB.
You kids continue to spend all offseason talking about the big name starting pitchers in FA or on the trade market (as well as Juan Soto), like that’ll be important in 2025
MLB teams have to cover a bit over 1,400 innings a year. Workhouse starters throw 160-180. The staff has cover the other 7/8’ths. Smart FO’s and managers matter.
I have no problem with either of these.
Congratulations to Vogt and Murphy. They have tied Bruce Bochy in the # MOY awards. Bochy with 4 championships and 4,336 games managed was voted against even by Ann Killion of the SF Chronicle. It is a nebulous symbol awarded by MLB propogandists..
If anything Kotsay was a brilliant manager given the roster in 2024.
Killion voted *against* Bruce?
AJ Hinch did it with mirrors and Skubal. Helluva job.
A true miracle.
Both had fantastic years n their teams played better than expected.
Maybe Hinch and Shildt should have played in the worst division in baseball like Murphy.
AL central sucks, too!
No they don’t. Only the White Sox did.
3 playoff teams out of AL Central.
I think the Brewers have more or the less the same record if Counsel stayed put.
Glad to see at least a former Padre manager get recognized, if it was not to be for the current one.
Giants screwed up with Vogt
I have no problem with either.
Brewers never missed a beat from last year and Vogt pulled off Tito like magic with the same kind of team (plus he’s a former catcher – sue me, I’m biased).
What Hinch did in the last quarter of the season was nothing short of a miracle. There has never been a team with so little talent make the playoffs. His cheat history with the Astros probably didn’t help!
The 2002 A’s beg to differ
Hudson, Mulder, Zito, Tejada, Chavez, Koch, Bradford would argue with you on that
Yeah… they were SO good that year, they had to win 20 straight just to eek into the playoffs
I would’ve went with Quatraro but Vogt isn’t a bad choice. I do wonder though; since when do these guy’s moms get a vote? Because who the hell else voted for Baldelli, Cora or Kotsay?
Congrats to Vogt and Murphy!
(No claims of NY/LA bias??)
Great to see such a recent player hit the ground running with so much success.
Based on how he managed against the Yankees in the postseason. Vogt has quite a bit to learn about in-game strategies. I would not say he’s a good manager at all, but he seems smart. He’ll get there.
It’s hard to believe the 3 AL manager candidates were all from the AL Central yet they all got to beat up on the pathetic Chi Sox who lost over 120 games! If the Sox improve to only a 95 loss season that 25 game swing comes at the cost of W’s for most of those managers nominated as MotY
Should have been Hinch, no one had any thought of the Tigers competing or making the playoffs
Does Oli Marmol’s mom get a vote? Hes one of the worst in the game and has underperformed every season. What are we doing here?