2023 MLB Awards: Top 5 AL Manager of the Year Award Candidates

Rocco Baldelli, Brandon Hyde, Bruce Bochy and Kevin Cash are all worthy candidates for the 2023 American League Manager of the Year Award, but who will win the award?

Jack Vita | Oct 24, 2023

2023 MLB Awards: Top 5 AL Manager of the Year Award Candidates /

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Baltimore Orioles

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.

Published Oct 24, 2023

JACK VITA

Jack Vita is a writer and contributor to Sports Illustrated's Inside the Orioles, and host of the Jack Vita Show, a popular sports podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and wherever podcasts are found. Jack is a 2017 graduate of Valparaiso University, in northwest Indiana. Since completing his degree, Jack has created his own independent sports media outlet (JackVita.com) and podcast (the Jack Vita Show). He has featured prominent guests from the worlds of sports and entertainment including Brian Urlacher, Scot Pollard, Bob Nightengale, Dan O'Dowd, and Survivor icons Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, Cirie Fields, Danni Boatwright and "the Dragon Slayer", Coach Benjamin Wade. While studying at Valparaiso, Jack was the school newspaper's beat writer for the Valpo Crusaders men's basketball team, which won three straight Horizon League championships from 2015-2017. Traveling to cover the team, Jack had a front row seat to one of the nation's best mid-major teams, headlined by future NBA Draft pick Alec Peters and coached by NCAA Tournament hero Bryce Drew. Jack hosted a weekly sports radio show and provided play-by-play and color commentary services for ESPN 3 and the university's student radio station, WVUR-FM, 95.1 The Source, covering Valparaiso men's soccer, women's basketball, softball and volleyball. Jack also covered these sports, in addition to men's and women's tennis, baseball and women's soccer for the school newspaper, The Torch. While he was in college, Jack interned for and co-hosted Jewell On Sports, a sports radio program on AM 1050 WLIP in Kenosha, Wisconsin. There, he interviewed various pro athletes such as Ahman Green, Javon Walker and Javier Arenas, in addition to talking sports with the late, great Brad Jewell. Jack also interned for 22nd Century Media, a now defunct newspaper corporation that provided news to the North Shore of Chicago. With 22nd Century Media, Jack wrote post-game recaps, feature stories about local athletes, reviews of local restaurants and compiled the newspaper's "Pet of the Week" and "Athlete of the Week" sections, while providing copy-editing services. Before attending Valparaiso, Jack enrolled at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he studied for two years before transferring. He is a high school graduate of New Trier Township High School in Winnetka, Illinois. You can follow Jack on Twitter @JackVitaShow, subscribe to his podcast, the Jack Vita Show, wherever podcasts are found, and reach him via email at jack@jackvita.com.