AL MANAGER OF THE YEAR
It didn’t take much thought for me to select Cleveland Indians skipper Terry Francona as my American League Manager of the Year. Francona guided a club that had some key injuries and faced stiff divisional competition to first place in the AL Central with a 94-67 record during the regular season.
Coming into the season, most prognosticators had the Indians for no better than third place in the division. The Indians were just 10-12 after a loss on May 1, but played to an 84-55 record thereafter as Francona kept them upbeat and believing in themselves.
Just two games up in the division race as late as August 2, the Tribe would pull away with a 10-4 stretch of play that opened that lead up to 7.5 games in just two weeks.
Runner-up Scott Servais led the Mariners to a second place finish in the AL West, just three games back of an AL Wild Card berth, with a 10-win improvement over 2015.
Third place John Farrell guided a talented Boston club to the AL East crown and a 15-game improvement over their 2015 record.
MY BALLOT: 1 – Terry Francona (CLE), 2 – Scott Servais (SEA), 3 – John Farrell (BOS)