New York Mets manager Buck Showalter and Cleveland Guardians manager Terry Francona were both named the NL and AL Manager of the Year, respectively, on Tuesday night.
Showalter beat out Braves’ Brian Snitker and and Dodgers’ Dave Roberts to take home the award for the fourth time in his career — joining Tony La Russa and Bobby Cox as the only managers to win it four times.
It was the first time Showalter won in the National League (he previously won with the 2014 Orioles, 2004 Rangers and 1994 Yankees) and first time a Mets skipper has won the award as well, as he led the team to a 101-win season and their first playoff appearance since 2016 in his first year managing the team.
"That’s humbling," Showalter told MLB Network. "Great recognition of an organization. What a great moment for our organization top to bottom. That means a lot to everybody, thank you."
Meanwhile, Francona won his third Manager of the Year award, receiving 17 of the 30 first-place votes and beating runner-up Brandon Hyde of the Baltimore Orioles and Mariners’ Scott Servais as the third finalist.
Francona took a young Guardians team that many did not expect to make the playoffs to winning the AL Central and reaching the ALDS.
“It was fun,” Francona said Tuesday on MLB Network. “Whether it’s a challenge or a hope or goal as a staff is to try and get players to believe and what ended up happening was I think the way our young squad, the way they attacked the game and the way they competed kinda helped all of us believe. …I think our young players, all of our players, they just competed so well from the beginning and just made the season really fun.”
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