BBWAA Awards Week continues with AL/NL Manager of the Year Award

WAYNE, N.J.- Following the announcement of the American League and National League Rookie of the Year last night, the BBWAA awards week continues as the 2016 Manager of the Year Award winners will be announced tonight at 6 p.m. EST.

Manager of the Year

American League:  Jeff Bannister TEX, Terry Francona CLE,  Buck Showalter BALVia @MLB

This group of finalist are no stranger to the Manager of the Year Award as 2016 will be the 4th straight year that one of these skippers takes home the award.

 Terry Francona won his first year with the Indians in 2013, Buck Showalter has won the award 3 times, in 3 different decades, with 3 different teams (1994 NYY, 2004 TEX, 2014 BAL) and Jeff Bannister is the reigning winner doing so in his first year with the Rangers.  Showalter lead a rotation-less Orioles team to 89 wins and a Wild Card birth, however, Terry Francona is the favorite for the award after a 13 win improvement  from a year ago, en route to being crowned American League Central division champions.

National League: Dusty Baker WSN, Joe Maddon CHC, Dave Roberts LAD,Via @MLB

The National League Manager of the Year award could really go to any of it’s 3 finalists. All 3 managers lead their clubs to division titles, while Dave Roberts and Dusty Baker did so in their first year with their respective clubs.  Reining winner, Joe Maddon lead the Cubs to a league high 103 victories and back to back postseason appearances since the 2007-2008 seasons.  Though Maddon a 3-time award winner (AL ’08, ’11, NL ’15) and Baker another 3-time award winner (NL ’93, ’97, ’00) are deserving candidates in their own right, Roberts went above and beyond winning 91 games and a NL West division title without prior managerial experience.

Since the Manager of the Year award was given out in 1983 there has only been one back-to-back winner: Atlanta Braves skipper, Bobby Cox who did so in the 2004-2005 seasons.  In 1996, New York Yankees manager, Joe Torre and Johnny Oates of the Texas Rangers tied for the league among voters, resulting in two American League winners for that season.  Though it would seem that Joe Maddon and Terry Francona would be shoe-ins after leading their respective clubs to their league’s pennant, post-season performance has no effect on the outcome of the award.

The Manager of the Year Award winners will be announced on MLB Network on Wednesday, November 16th at 6 p.m. EST.