Marlins’ Mattingly is Manager of the Year
The Miami Marlins’ short, weird and successful 2020 season picked up another accolade when Don Mattingly was named NL Manager of the Year on Tuesday night by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Mattingly guided the Marlins to their first playoff appearance since 2003 despite dealing with a COVID19 outbreak that paused their season and ravaged the roster.
The Marlins’ 31-29 record was Mattingly’s first winning season in his fifth year with the club. The former big league first base man and AL MVP had a winning record in each of his five seasons as the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Mat tingly is the first Manager of the Year winner for the Marlins since Joe Girardi in 2006. Mattingly was named the NL Manager of the Year by the Sporting News last month, but the BBWA A honor is considered more prestigious. He is fifth person to win both MV Pand Manager of the Year.
“They’re just different. The first one feels personal and this one feels more like a team thing,” Mattingly said, “and that’s why I’m proud of it because we’ve struggled for a couple years and for us to move forward is important, and I think this is a sign that we’re heading in that direction.”
San Diego’s Jayce Tingler finished second in balloting by the followed by David Ross of the Chicago Cubs. Tingler and Ross led their teams to the playoffs in their first seasons as a big league manager.
Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash won the AL Manager of the Year award.
Long regarded as one of baseball’s bright young minds, Cash guided Tampa Bay to an AL-best 40-20 record during the pandemic-shortened season. But he was roundly criticized for pulling ace left-hander Blake Snell in the sixth inning of the decisive Game 6 in the World Series against the champion Dodgers.
After losing 105 games a year ago, Miami’s 2020 season was nearly derailed by a coronavirus outbreak during the first weekend of play. The team had tomake 174 roster moves in the 60-game season but still managed the franchise’s first winning record since 2009. Mattingly said he sometimes had not met Marlins players before they showed up at the ballpark for a game.
The steady hand of the 59-yearold Mattingly played a big role in the turnaround, which continued in the playoffs. Miami eliminated the NL Central champion Cubs in thefirst round before it was swept by the Atlanta Braves in the NL Division Series.
After he was named a finalist for the award last week, Mattingly paid tribute to Marlins CEO Derek Jeter and the rest of the team’s ownership group.
“I think it starts at the top with ownership, working itsway down through Derek and right down through our staff and development, analytics,” Mattingly said. “I think we all, Derek put us all on the same page, where we have a goal in mind and we knew that it was going to be a little rough. We didn’t want to talk about it for a couple years, but we believed in where we wanted to go.”
Mattingly also became the winningest manager in Marlins’ history on Aug. 6 against Baltimore, surpassing JackMcKeon’s 281 career wins. During his tenure, Mattingly has accumulated a 307-399 record.
The Cy Young Awards will be announced by the BBWAA on Wednesday night, followed by the MVPs on Thursday.