DETROIT -- When award assignments are handed out, getting tasked with choosing the Manager of the Year feels like a thankless task.
How do you rank managers? What are the criteria?
Decades after the award was established, there’s still no definitive answer.
As a result, most of us default to a similar standard: How did the manager’s team perform compared to expectations? It’s a logical approach given the lack of available metrics, but it can unfairly penalize managers of great teams expected to perform well (like Aaron Boone of the Yankees). It can also credit or blame managers for factors more attributable to player performance or front-office decisions.
But we work with what we have. There are 15 American League managers. Very few if any are likely to be truly bad at their job. Most are likely among the top in their field. Our task is to vote for three -- 20 percent -- whose resume stood out in 2024.
Guardians first-year manager Stephen Vogt quickly jumped to the top of my list.
Why?
The Guardians did virtually nothing during the offseason. The team that started 2024 was not dramatically different than the team that ended 2023. But Cleveland won 16 more games and basically led the AL Central Division wire-to-wire in 2024.
Royals manager Matt Quatraro’s situation was a little different as Kansas City did in fact make a number of offseason moves that helped them go from 56-106 in 2023 to 86-76 in 2024.
A 30-win improvement is nothing to sneeze at. The Royals are just the second team in MLB history to make the playoffs in a full season following a 100-loss campaign. (The 2017 Minnesota Twins were the other; the Miami Marlins accomplished the feat in the COVID-shortened 2020 season).
The Tigers were better than both the Royals and Guardians in 2023, so their turnaround was less dramatic.
Most predicted the Tigers to play about .500 ball in 2024, which is where they hovered for most of the season. But the finish was unforgettable.
The Tigers were eight games under .500 and 10 games out of the playoff race after losing on Aug. 10. After that, they went 31-11 to clinch the franchise’s 17th playoff appearance with two games to spare.
Hinch pushed all the right buttons, skillfully managing his bench and his bullpen. He got players to not only accept but embrace a different way of approaching the game. He earned a spot on my ballot.
My ballot:
1. Stephen Vogt, Cleveland Guardians
2. Matt Quatraro, Kansas City Royals
3. A.J. Hinch, Detroit Tigers