2023 MLB Awards: Top 5 AL Manager of the Year Award Candidates
Major League Baseball awards season is quickly approaching, with the 2023 regular season now in the rearview.
Award winners will be announced in November, upon the conclusion of the World Series.
As a part of our 2023 MLB award selections, here are our top five American League Manager of the Year Award candidates:
5) Rocco Baldelli, Minnesota Twins
Baldelli received AL Manager of the Year honors back in 2019, when the Minnesota Twins won 101 games. In 2023, his club posted its highest win total since 2019, logging 87 victories and claiming its third AL Central division title over the past five years.
4) Dusty Baker, Houston Astros
It wasn't entirely smooth sailing for the Houston Astros in 2023. In the final weeks of the regular season, the Astros dropped four straight series, three of which came at the hands of the lowly Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals. Baker was presented with a handful of challenges in 2023, however. Due to injuries to Lance McCullers Jr., Luis Garcia and Jose Urquidy, Baker was forced to rely heavily on a handful of rookie starting pitchers, including the likes of Hunter Brown, JP France, Brandon Bielak and Ronel Blanco. Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez also spent time on the IL. Baker's club still found a way to win the AL West for the sixth time in seven years.
3) Bruce Bochy, Texas Rangers
The Texas Rangers won just 68 games a season ago. In Bochy's first year as the club's manager, the Rangers saw a 22-game improvement, posting a 90-72 record and returning to the postseason for the first time since 2016.
2) Kevin Cash, Tampa Bay Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays continued their sustained success in 2023, winning 99 games and coming up just two wins short of their third AL East title in four years. Despite injuries to Brandon Lowe, Shane Baz, Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs, and losing star shortstop Wander Franco late in the season, Cash's club found a way to win.
1) Brandon Hyde, Baltimore Orioles
To the surprise of many, the Baltimore Orioles finished with the best record in the American League during 2023. Hyde's young team not only overachieved, but it appears to be a formidable juggernaut for the next several years to come. Hyde is the frontrunner to win AL Manager of the Year, and he will most likely win the Award in November.
