The Red Sox have undergone a historic 2018 campaign in Alex Cora’s first year at the helm of the squad.
However, even with his team sitting at 90 wins, and running away with the American League East, there are certainly more deserving candidates of the Manager of the Year Award than a guy leading the charge for a team that was supposed to dominate the game.
The fact of the matter is, the award belongs to somebody doing a phenomenal job as manager for a team that has far exceeded expectations in 2018. So if Cora isn’t the No.1 choice for Manager of the Year, who’s a more deserving candidate?
1. Bob Melvin – Oakland Athletics
Who would’ve thought back in April that the Oakland A’s would be among the elite teams in the American League?
They’ve pooled a ton of young talent over the years from trading guys like Josh Donaldson and Sonny Gray, who were both key pieces to bringing them to their last postseason in 2014. Against all odds, the Oakland A’s are 77-52 (.597) and within 1.5 games of first in the AL West as of Aug. 25.
That’s a testament to the Melvin’s work in the dugout on a nightly basis. Sure, guys like Khris Davis, Matt Chapman, and Blake Treinen have really emerged as superstar-caliber players in Oakland this year, but it all falls back on the guy running the ship; and Melvin has done a great job running the show in Oak-town this year.
2. Kevin Cash – Tampa Bay Rays
Let’s ignore the fact that the Rays are 21.5 games back in the American League East and nine games out of the second wild card for a moment and just marvel at the wonderful job Kevin Cash is doing with a team that only has two starting pitchers on the MLB roster this season.
Since the end of the 2017 season, the Rays lost Logan Morrison, Alex Cobb, Jake Odorizzi, Evan Longoria, Brad Miller, Wilson Ramos, Chris Archer, and Alex Colome to either free agency or trades. That’s eight guys who had become vital pieces to the Tampa Bay Rays organization over the years all gone. Kevin Keirmaier voiced his displeasure with the fact the doubted what he believed to be a good Rays team.
Kevin Kiermaier is being completely honest and up front with his thoughts on the recent roster moves involving Jake Odorizzi and Corey Dickerson. He says he's frustrated with the #Rays front office. KK is pretty upset… pic.twitter.com/xq9qxGgZlV
— John Sabol (@John_Sabol) February 19, 2018
The Rays replaced those key players with Matt Duffy, Michael Perez, Tx, Sergio Romo, Jake Bauers, and Joey Wendle—a bunch of second or third-tier players—and yet they’re 68-61 (.527) this season.
Cash, along with first-year pitching coach Kyle Snyder, have adopted a new style to managing a pitching staff: The use of the opener has now become something they use three times every five days. Which has surprisingly worked. Cash has had to deal with disgruntled stars, as well as taking some relievers out of their more familiar roles and turn them into starters on some days. Despite all of these setbacks, the Rays are above .500 and are competing with the Red Sox and Yankees.
Cora has done a great job this year, so no slight to him whatsoever, but my personal pick for the award would be Cash.
