Handicapping the AL Manager of the Year Award race

With the Pirates officially in the offseason, Pirates Breakdown turns its attention to the playoffs and the upcoming 2016 season awards. This week we take a look at the AL Manager of the Year Award.

Picking the AL Manager of the Year is not like choosing the Most Valuable Players or Rookies of the Year. For awards such as those, you have statistics to compare to make a decision. For the managers, you can look at the team’s win-loss record. Other aspects that can be considered are how the team finish compared to what was projected and how did the manager work with the talent on the team. For instance, to me it would be difficult to give the Manager of the Year award to John Farrell since the Red Sox were expected to do well and had a plethora of big names and talented call-ups to bolster the roster.

With that being said, I think this year’s American League Manager of the Year Award should go to a former Boston manager, the man who got Cleveland within one win of a World Series victory. Terry Francona should be named the best manager in the junior circuit.

Francona was able to guide Cleveland to a 94-67 record and their first appearance in the World Series since 1997. He was able to do this in the same division that features last year’s champion, the Kansas City Royals. Some of the team’s success can be pointed to their 49-26 record against the other AL Central teams, which was also the best record against division teams in the American League.

All teams have to deal with injuries throughout the baseball season, and Cleveland was not an exception this year. Both Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar, pitchers that were expected to take a step forward and hold down rotation spots last year, missed time because of injuries. Fortunately Corey Kluber, Josh Tomlin and Trevor Bauer were able to hold down the rotation and keep the Indians on the path to success. Granted, Francona had super reliever Andrew Miller for half the year, but he in general he was one of the smarter managers when it came to deploying his bullpen arms throughout the season.

The only other manager that is strong competition for Francona is Texas manager Jeff Banister. As a Pirates fan, seeing the former Pittsburgh coach take home the award would be very exciting. But I think that Francona is more deserving of the award. Banister had a lot of big names on his roster, while Francona’s was made up of a lot of role players who put together fantastic seasons. Francona got more out of his lineup, in my opinion.

So while he did fall short of the ultimate goal of winning the World Series, I think Francona should be rewarded for guiding Cleveland to the top of the AL Central and making it to the Fall Classic. Banister is a worthy candidate for the position, but I feel that what Francona did with his roster is more impressive and will be the reason he earns his second Manager of the Year Award since joining the Cleveland organization.

Who do you think is deserving of the AL Manager of the Year Award this year? Let us know in the comments!