OPINION: Rob Thomson Would be NL Manager of the Year if Voting Took Place After Playoffs

Tuesday night, Major League Baseball will announce on its network the winners for the American League and National League Manager of the Year Award.

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker and New York Mets manager Buck Showalter are the three finalists for the award on the National League side.

Manager of the Year is a regular season award. Baseball writers vote for the BBWAA awards after the regular season ends, before the postseason begins. Therefore, postseason performance is not factored into consideration for the awards.

If the postseason did in fact play a factor, however, it would be hard for voters not to give the NL Manager of the Year Award to Philadelphia Phillies skipper Rob Thomson.

I must admit, I was dead wrong on this team.

When the Phillies fired World Series-winning manager Joe Girardi on June 3, I wrote the club off.

At 22-29, I believed that the Phillies would turn a corner at some point as the schedule lightened up, and thought perhaps the team might make the playoffs in Major League Baseball's new expanded postseason format. What I did not expect, though, was a remarkable turnaround and a miraculous run to the World Series.

After being swept by the Chicago Cubs in September, I doubted that the Phillies would win a single playoff game. Thomson only continued to prove me wrong and make me look like a fool.

After a 22-29 start, the Phillies would go 65-46 under Thomson's leadership, while playing without their reigning NL MVP Bryce Harper for nearly a full two months.

But most of us wouldn't take notice of Thomson's masterful leadership until the postseason, when the Phillies ran through the National League with ease, winning nine of 11 games to reach their first World Series since 2009. Heck, Thomson didn't have the interim tag removed from his job title until October 10. It took a road playoff series win in St. Louis for executive Dave Dombrowski to name Thomson the club's 55th manager in Phillies franchise history.

The Phillies finally met their match in the World Series, falling to a superior Houston Astros team that won nearly 20 more games than the Phillies did in the regular season.

Thomson took his team as far as it could go, managing his bullpen masterfully, and aggressively trying to win each game at all stops, not worrying about the next day. Thomson's club played with inspired confidence and seemed to have a great deal of cohesiveness. In addition to Thomson pushing the right buttons, his guys never quit, and seemed to enjoy going into war with each other every single day.

From June 3 to October 29, the Phillies went 75-48, reaching the World Series for the first time in 13 years. You'd be hard-pressed to find a manager in the National League whose club played as well as his did in both the regular season and the postseason.

Thomson admittedly would not have received my vote at the end of September, but he certainly would have if voting occurred after the playoffs.

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