Twins’ Molitor, D’Backs’ Lovullo top managers
Minnesota Twins manager Paul Molitor and Torey Lovullo of the Arizona Diamondbacks were named the American League and National League Managers of the Year, respectively.
Molitor, 61, orchestrated an impressive turnaround in Minnesota that saw the Twins jump from 59-103 and a fifth-place finish in the AL Central in 2016 to 85-77 and second in the division in 2017.
Minnesota became the first team in major league history to make the playoffs after losing 100-plus games the prior season. The Twins lost to the Yankees in the AL wild-card game.
This marks the third time a Twins skipper has won the award. Tom Kelly won it in 1991 and Ron Gardenhire won in 2010.
Molitor received 112 points and 18 first-place votes. Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona finished second (90 points) and had 11 first-place votes.
World Series championship skipper A.J. Hinch of the Houston Astros came in third with 56 points and received a single firstplace vote. Former Yankees manager Joe Girardi was fourth with 12 points.
Molitor is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame after 21 major league seasons as a player, including three with Minnesota. He posted a .306 career batting average with 3,319 hits, 234 home runs and 1,307 RBIs in 2,683 games.
Molitor is only the second Hall of Famer to be named Manager of the Year, joining Frank Robinson, who won the award with the Baltimore Orioles in 1989.
The 52-year-old Lovullo, in his first season with Arizona, managed the team to a 93-69 record – 24 more wins than last season, the second largest win increase from 2016 among all teams – and into the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
He is the third manager in Diamondbacks history to win National League Manager of the Year, joining Bob Melvin in 2007 and Kirk Gibson in 2011.
Lovullo received 18 first-place votes and finished with 111 points total. Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers (five firstplace votes, 55 points) and Bud Black of the Colorado Rockies (three first-place votes, 43 points) finished second and third, respectively in the NL.