NY (AP) – Joe Maddon has won his third Manager of the Year award, earning his first in the NL after guiding the Chicago Cubs to their first postseason berth since 2008.
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Astros manager A.J. Hinch finished second with eight first-place votes and 82 overall points.
Texas Rangers skipper Jeff Bannister has been named the American League Manager of the Year.
Banister led the Rangers to a division title in his first season on the job.
Maddon, in his first season in charge of the Cubs, relied on a core of talented young players, including NL Rookie of the Year Kris Bryant, to shrug off the team’s history of failure and image as lovable losers on the way to the playoffs. Molitor got two first-place votes and 33 points.
“At the end of the day, it’s a player’s game”, Maddon said in an interview with Major League Baseball Network.
Banister joined Houstons Hal Lanier (1986), San Franciscos Dusty Baker (1993), Floridas Joe Girardi (2006) and Washingtons Matt Williams (2014) as the only men to win in their first season as a major league manager.
If Banister wins the award, he’ll become the third Rangers manager to win the award, following Johnny Oates (1996) and Buck Showalter (2004).
Previous Twins managers to win the BBWAA award were Ron Gardenhire in 2010 and Tom Kelly in 1991.
“All the things that I’ve been through in my lifetime – and there were a lot of times that I asked why – well, there were times this year that I knew exactly why”, the 51-year-old Banister said. They both gave Molitor a third place vote.
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From his news conference more than 12 months ago to announce his hiring, Maddon downplayed the losing clouds that hovered over Wrigley Field and spoke of reaching the playoffs – a once-unthinkable goal because the Cubs were coming off an 89-loss season and in the midst of a rebuilding project.
