For anyone up in arms wondering how World Series champion Dave Roberts wasn’t even a finalist (again) for Manager of the Year in the National League and how Blue Jays skipper John Schneider didn’t run away with the award in the American League, a reminder is warranted.
The awards are based solely on the regular season, and votes are cast before the playoffs. Postseason performance does not factor in.
Again: Postseason performance does not factor in.
This feels especially important to reiterate when discussing this particular award compared to others voted on by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, considering how subjective it is and how much the postseason can understandably shape fan perception of a manager’s performance.
Unlike other awards, you can’t look at WAR or OPS or ERA to determine the credentials for the best manager in baseball. In addition, front offices increasingly have a role in decisions on the field, and we can’t possibly know how much one manager is involved over another or all the conversations taking place behind the scenes.
What we can see, especially in October: Did the game speed up on the manager in the biggest moments? Did he let his starter ride where others might have turned to the bullpen? Did it work out? Did he pick the right relief matchup in the right spot? Did his pinch-hit decision work out? How did gut calls pay off? All of that can separate a good manager from a great one and a great season from a championship one.
But, as one of the 30 BBWAA members who voted on the AL Manager of the Year Award this year, we only have the first 162 games to make a decision. So we look at wins and losses, and we look at which teams outplayed expectations, and we look at the managers who got the best out of their players and kept the ship afloat through hazardous seas.
Schneider, who took the Blue Jays from worst to first in the always formidable AL East, had a strong argument to win the award even before guiding the Blue Jays to their first World Series since 1993.
He would have been my vote a couple of weeks before season’s end, and he would still be a perfectly reasonable choice.
But Cleveland’s historic finish to the year, during which Vogt kept the belief of a Guardians team that ultimately overcame a 15.5-game deficit — the largest ever to win a division — was enough to sway my vote for AL Manager of the Year.
My final ballot:
- Stephen Vogt, Guardians
- John Schneider, Blue Jays
- Dan Wilson, Mariners
That’s how the BBWAA voting ultimately panned out, as well, with Vogt earning 17 of the BBWAA’s 30 first-place votes. Schneider received 10, Wilson got two and Boston’s Alex Cora got one. Cora finished fourth in the voting followed by Detroit’s A.J. Hinch in fifth and Houston’s Joe Espada in sixth.
The Guardians were more than 15 games out of first place on July 8. By then, starter Luis Ortiz had been placed on administrative leave amid an MLB gambling investigation. Weeks later, Cleveland lost star closer Emmanuel Clase to the same investigation. Neither pitcher would throw another pitch for the Guardians in 2025, and both would later be indicted on charges tied to allegedly rigging pitches.
At the deadline, no help arrived.
In fact, Cleveland’s path forward was made even more challenging when the Guardians traded away former Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber to Toronto as he approached his return from Tommy John surgery.
It would have been easy to pack it up.
The Guardians had a bottom-five payroll and an offense that lacked what appeared to be the requisite star power to mount a stunning comeback. José Ramírez could only do so much to lift an offense that finished the year ranked last in the AL in on-base percentage, slugging and OPS.
Ramírez and first baseman Kyle Manzardo were the only Guardians players who hit above league average on the season. Ramírez and outfielder Steven Kwan were the only Guardians players worth at least 2 WAR.
Meanwhile, the pitching wasn’t as overpowering as it was the year prior. The bullpen was missing Clase, and the rotation entered September ranked 18th in ERA and 19th in strikeout rate.
On the morning of Sept. 5, with only 23 games left to play, the Guardians were still 11 games back in the AL Central. No team had ever overcome even a nine-game deficit in September to win a division.
To his credit, Vogt kept the belief.
“We can’t control the 11 games,” Vogt told me after winning the award. “The only way you can overcome a deficit like that is to win each individual game. We preached it and tried to live it every day.”
Certainly, the Tigers’ collapse down the stretch played a significant role in loosening Detroit’s season-long stranglehold in the AL Central, but that shouldn’t minimize what the Guardians accomplished, against all odds.
They went 48-26 from July 7 through the end of the season, compiling more wins than any team in MLB during that time. And they finished the year winning 19 of their last 23 games, including a 5-1 mark against the Tigers team they were chasing, to ultimately capture their second straight division title under Vogt.
He became the fourth skipper to win Manager of the Year in consecutive seasons, joining the Rays’ Kevin Cash (2020-21), the Braves’ Bobby Cox (2004-05) and the Brewers’ Pat Murphy, who was also named his respective league’s winner for the award for the second straight season on Tuesday.
“I leaned on everyone around me,” Vogt said. “I leaned on the coaching staff. I leaned on the front office. I leaned on the players. We were all in that together.”
Schneider and Wilson both mounted strong arguments. The Blue Jays, with a top-five payroll, a star in first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., a resurgent year from designated hitter George Springer and a bevy of depth pieces who took a massive leap forward, had a 20-win improvement and held off the Yankees to win their first division title in 10 years. The Mariners, bolstered by some major deadline additions, made a five-win improvement and won their first division title since 2001.
Either would be fine choices, but neither overcame the odds of a Guardians team that everyone had counted out. It is the resilience of the Guardians that Vogt, who became the first skipper ever to win Manager of the Year in his first two big-league seasons at the helm, will remember most from the 2025 season.
“And that we actually got it done,” Vogt said.
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner.
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