Why Cleveland Guardians Stephen Vogt deserves Manager of the Year honor

The Cleveland Guardians defied the odds time and time again in the 2025 campaign.

When the team completed a historic, 15.5 games-back comeback to retake the No. 1 spot in the American League Central division standings, leading the charge was manager Stephen Vogt. He pushed Cleveland to its second consecutive division title, erasing the largest deficit a team has ever had to overcome to finish first in a division or league in MLB history.

Deservedly, he is now up for Manager of the Year honors for his leadership this past season.

The 41-year-old manager, in just his second year at the helm of a franchise, helped propel this team through countless bumps in the road. The Guardians finished the year with an overall record of 88-74, four less wins than the 2024 campaign.

That's not a negative. That's a testimant to what Vogt was able to do with a team that sputtered and failed multiple times throughout the season.

With the Guardians pushing deep into the postseason last year, Vogt was named the Manager of the Year, with a chance to repeat this year. He would be just the third manager to do such a thing, with Kevin Cash and Bobby Cox being the only others.

Cash did it in 2020 and 2021, while Cox did it 2004 and 2005.

This year, Vogt is fighting to win the award against Toronto Blue Jays skipper John Schneider and Seattle Mariners' Dan Wilson.

Stephen Vogt has been named a finalist for Manager of the Year for the second time in as many seasons as our Skipper.#GuardsBall pic.twitter.com/BmKi2DAAGf
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) November 3, 2025

Does he deserve to win it?

No doubt.

There's not another manager in all of baseball who had to lead a team to success this season with such little experienced talent. Throughout most of the 2025 season, the team was calling up prospects for their first year in the MLB, while developing others who were in their second or third stints.

Vogt was also able to scrape up a playoff appearance with the sixth-lowest total payroll and fifth-lowest active payroll in the entire MLB.

Both the Mariners and Blue Jays were within the Top 10 in total payroll and Top 15 in active payroll. Toronto themselves, who marched to the World Series, were fifth in total payroll.

Having that much money spent on experienced and talented bats and arms is obviously a recipe for success. And understandably, each team pushed their way into real contention this past season.

But Vogt posted just two less regular season wins than Seattle and six less than Toronto.

Veteran catcher Austin Hedges believes that Vogt deserves the honor of being Manager of the Year.

“I think that guy's the best manager in the league right now,” catcher Austin Hedges said last month. “If he doesn't win back-to-back Manager of the Year [Awards], that would be a shame, because he deserves it.”

When a team starts losing and the confidence of players is shot, the manager and coaching staff has to rise above the noise and calm the storm. Vogt and the rest did that.

“There were a lot of teams that in the second half of the year would have folded, given some of the adversity we faced,” general manager Mike Chernoff said last month. “Obviously it's a huge credit to the players. But a lot of players at different points, especially in the second half, relied on Vogter and the staff to keep them energized, and it was amazing to see."

Alongside the American League Manager of the Year honor, the Guardians are being represented by future Hall of Famer, José Ramírez in the race for American League MVP.

José Ramírez has been named an MVP finalist for the fourth time in his Cooperstown-bound career. 🐐#GuardsBall pic.twitter.com/3MmV0Zfhq1
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) November 3, 2025

Ramírez, who's been Cleveland's golden boy for years now, finished this past season with a slashing line of .283/.360/.503 with an incredible 30 home runs. Last season, he finished fifth in MVP voting and has been a finalist three times.

He will be competing against New York Yankee Aaron Judge and Seattle Mariner Cal Raleigh for the honor.

Vogt will know if he won the award or not on Nov. 11 at 7:00 p.m. EST, while the MVP winner will be announced two days later on Nov. 13 at the same time of 7:00 p.m. EST.

The winners will be announced live on the MLB Network.