MLB: Surprise at Manager of the Year election

Bob Melvin and Brian Snitker are the managers of the year at MLB. That was the result of a vote by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Both had quite surprisingly reached the playoffs with their teams.

With the Oakland Athletics Melvin reached the wildcard of the American League and exceeded the expectations of before the season. The A’s were actually a team that had just gone through a rebuild but finished second in the AL West.

For Melvin, however, it is not a new feeling as he had already received the Arizona Diamondbacks A’s Award for Manager of the Year in 2007 and the A’s Award in 2012. This makes him the eighth manager overall to receive at least three awards. Only Bobby Cox and Tony LaRussa were elected Manager of the Year four times each.

For the A’s in turn, it is the fourth manager award overall. LaRussa won the title twice (1988, 1992) and Melvin now also.

Surprisingly far behind, Alex Cora only finished second. With the Boston Red Sox, he had clinched by far the most victories in the season with 108 – in his first season as manager ever.

Snitker in turn won the award for the first time. For the Atlanta Braves, who were not among the favourites in the NL East with their young team, but won them confidently, this is already the fourth manager title. The other three awards all went to Cox (1991, 2004, 2005).

Snitker is meanwhile the seventh manager of the year to have never played in the MLB. The others were Jim Leyland (three times Manager of the Year), Joe Maddon, Buck Showalter, Jack McKeon (two times), Jim Frey and John McNamara. However, Snitker was the only manager represented on all 30 ballots.

The election was held until the end of the Regular Season, so performances in the Post Season played no role. Two journalists from each of the 15 cities of the National League and the American League were entitled to vote. There was one vote each for the first (5 points), second (3) and third place (1).

This article was published without prior review by Major League Baseball.