After overcoming different types of adversity with their teams in the 2016 season, Terry Francona of the Cleveland Indians and Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers were named American League and National League Manager of the Year on Tuesday, respectively.
Francona earned his second award in this category, previously winning in his first season with the Indians three years ago. Roberts took home the NL honors in his first season with the Dodgers.
Here are the voting results, per BBWAA.com:
Francona triumphed over Jeff Banister of the Texas Rangers and Buck Showalter of the Baltimore Orioles.
Voting for the award doesn’t include the playoffs, otherwise Francona would have won in a landslide for his ability to navigate a Cleveland pitching staff that was missing starters Carlos Carrasco for the entire postseason and Danny Salazar for the first two rounds due to injuries.
Factoring in just the regular season, it’s still hard to argue against Francona as the best manager in the American League. The Indians started the year without All-Star outfielder Michael Brantley due to offseason shoulder surgery that wound up limiting him to 11 games.
As the season moved along, Francona also lost Carrasco, Salazar and Yan Gomes for long stretches. Yet the Indians never wavered, going 94-67 to win their first division title since 2007.
Speaking on MLB Network before the results were announced, Francona described what it meant for him to be part of the Indians in 2016:
Per the Indians’ official Twitter account, Cleveland has been the AL’s best regular-season team since Francona took over, and his teams always play winning baseball:
There’s no exact science to be a successful manager in MLB. Francona‘s reputation suggests he knows how to prepare his team for work while at the same time always keep things loose in the clubhouse.
Indians general manager Mike Chernoff gave Francona kudos for his ability to handle in-game tactics so well, per MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian:
He’s amazing. He’s incredible at in-game strategy. It’s exceptional to just watch it. He’s five steps ahead of all of us — probably everybody out there — and we get to see the full picture. That’s just a small part of it of who he is and what he does. He’s broken down barriers organizationally for us.
The 2016 season was one in which most of the country finally caught up with what Francona and the Indians have slowly been building toward since he took over.
The Indians fell one win short of the ultimate prize, but with virtually every player from that team returning and injured stars like Brantley and Carrasco joining the mix, next season should be another good one for Cleveland.
With Francona steering things in the dugout, they know the ship is headed in the right direction.
In the NL, Roberts beat out Joe Maddon of the Chicago Cubs and Dusty Baker of the Washington Nationals to win in his first year as skipper.
“I am completely humbled,” Roberts said after the voting results were announced, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. “I am speechless.”
Roberts had arguably the most difficult managerial job of anyone in Major League Baseball, despite leading a team with a payroll of almost $250 million, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts.
The Dodgers set an MLB record by having 28 players on the disabled list during the regular season, including four-fifths of the starting rotation. Clayton Kershaw missed more than two months with back problems.
Kenta Maeda was the only Dodgers pitcher to make more than 26 starts. Despite those pitching injures, MLB Stat of the Day noted the team still set a new strikeout record:
In the face of so much adversity during the season, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman explained what Roberts did to keep the team successful, per Eric Stephen of True Blue LA:
A great byproduct of the cultural change and shift that we saw on the major league side with Doc and his coaches was to be able to provide that soft landing spot [for rookies]. That environment where guys could come up and thrive and not be afraid to compete, and were put in positions to succeed. It could not have worked out any better this year, and I think that’s a cultural environment that’s going to continue and grow off of itself and be furthered.
This marks the second consecutive night in which a member of the Dodgers was honored by the BBWAA. Star shortstop Corey Seager was named NL Rookie of the Year and could add the NL Most Valuable Player Award to his expanding trophy case Thursday.
Having a seemingly limitless payroll has its advantages, but all the money spent didn’t prepare Roberts for the volume of injuries that hit his team during the regular season.
Through it all, Roberts never seemed overwhelmed in his first season managing a team with sky-high expectations. He led the Dodgers to their fourth consecutive NL West title and made it to Game 6 of the NLCS before ultimately falling to the Chicago Cubs.
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