The Minnesota Twins’ Rocco Baldelli won the American League Manager of the Year Award on Tuesday, beating the Yankees’ Aaron Boone in a tight vote. Both received 13 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, but Baldelli got more second-place nods. The 38-year-old is the youngest manger to win the award.
The St. Louis Cardinals’ Mike Shildt won the National League award, narrowly beating Craig Counsell of the Milwaukee Brewers. Shildt earned the award in his first full season on the job, even though Counsell received more first-place votes.
Baldelli and Shildt are the eighth and ninth managers to win this award in their first full seasons on the job. Shildt, 51, is the first manager of the year who never played pro ball at any level.
Shildt replaced Mike Matheny as the Cardinals’ manager during the 2018 season, and under his steady guidance, St. Louis has been among baseball’s best teams since. The club won 91 games and the N.L. Central crown this year, ending the franchise’s three-year postseason drought. The Cardinals gave Shildt a contract extension through the 2022 season.
Atlanta’s Brian Snitker was third after winning the N.L. award last year. The Dodgers’ Dave Roberts finished fourth, and Nationals Manager Dave Martinez was fifth. Washington turned a 19-31 start into a World Series championship, but voting for the award concluded before the postseason.
Baldelli took over a team that won 78 games in 2018 and pushed it to 101 victories and an A.L. Central title. He worked tightly with Minnesota’s analytics-focused front office — a shift from his predecessor Paul Molitor, who won this award in 2017 — and oversaw a turnaround propelled by the team’s major-league-record 307 home runs.
One of Baldelli’s priorities was keeping players rested, a strategy that worked especially well with his catchers. Nobody started more than 73 games behind the plate for Minnesota, yet the trio of Mitch Garver, Jason Castro and Willians Astudillo combined for 48 home runs, the most in the majors by any team’s catchers.
In his second season at the Yankees’ helm, Boone led a team that put a major-league-record 30 players on the injured list and still won 103 regular-season games. He also became the first manager in the majors to win 100 games in his first two seasons on the job.
Rays Manager Kevin Cash earned three first-place votes in the A.L. and finished third. Oakland’s Bob Melvin was fourth, followed by Houston’s A.J. Hinch and Cleveland’s Terry Francona.