By DAVID BRANDT
Former Oakland A’s fan favorite Stephen Vogt won National League Manager of the Year on Tuesday after leading the Cleveland Guardians to 92 wins and a division title in his first year as a skipper at any level. Milwaukee’s Pat Murphy took the NL honor after a stellar debut season with the Brewers.
The 40-year-old Vogt beat Kansas City’s Matt Quatraro and Detroit’s A.J. Hinch, both AL Central rivals. He’s the first AL manager to win the award in his debut season since Minnesota’s Rocco Baldelli did it in 2019. He’s also the first to go from player to Manager of the Year in just two years.
The previous fastest was Joe Girardi from 2003 to 2006, when he won NL Manager of the Year with the Florida Marlins.
Vogt received 27 of the 30 first-place votes. Quatraro got two and Hinch one. Mark Kotsay received one second-place vote after managing the undermanned A’s to a 69-93 season in their last year in Oakland. First-year Giants manager Bob Melvin didn’t receive any votes after San Francisco went 80-82.
Vogt led the Guardians to a 92-69 record and the playoffs in his first season after replacing three-time manager of the year Terry Francona. The former big league catcher who ended his playing career with the A’s in 2022 took Cleveland to the AL Championship Series before losing to the Yankees in five games.
Vogt, who also played for the A’s from 2013-2017 and the Giants in 2019, is the third Cleveland skipper to win the honor, joining Francona (2013, 2016, 2022) and Eric Wedge (2007).
Murphy, 65, led the Brewers to an NL Central title, a 93-69 record and is the franchise’s first manager to earn the award since it was introduced in 1983. In the playoffs, Milwaukee lost to the New York Mets in a three-game wild-card Series.
Murphy had an unusual career path to big league success — he was a longtime college coach at Notre Dame and Arizona State before moving to the professional ranks in 2010. He worked in the Padres’ minor league system until 2015 when he was hired to be Milwaukee’s bench coach under Craig Counsell, who played for Murphy at Notre Dame.
After Counsell left for the Cubs during the offseason, the Brewers quickly turned to Murphy. The transition was nearly seamless.
Murphy beat San Diego’s Mike Shildt and New York’s Carlos Mendoza. He received 27 of the 30 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Shildt, Mendoza and Philadelphia’s Rob Thomson each received one vote.
Mendoza — in his first year leading the Mets — guided the franchise to an 89-win season and an appearance in the NL Championship Series before they lost in six games to the eventual World Series champion Dodgers.
Shildt guided the Padres to the playoffs in his first season in San Diego, winning 93 games. He won the Manager of the Year award in 2019 when he was in charge of the Cardinals.
The 51-year-old Quatraro, in his second season with the franchise, led the Royals to the postseason one year after a 106-loss season. Kansas City finished with an 86-76 record before beating Baltimore in a Wild Card Series.
Kansas City, led by catcher Salvador Perez young star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., lost to the Yankees in a four-game Division Series.
Hinch, a 50-year-old in his fourth season leading the Tigers, also made the playoffs with a torrid second-half despite losing quality players like right-hander Jack Flaherty at the trade deadline.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
