Beane gets top honor; Melvin a finalist for AL manager of year
After guiding the A’s from last place to the fourth-best record in baseball this season, Bob Melvin was named a finalist for the Baseball Writers’ Association of America American League Manager of the Year award.
The other finalists are Boston’s Alex Cora and Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash.
The BWAA revealed tthe final three for its major awards Monday, and the winners will be announced next week. The Manager of the Year winner will be announced Tuesday, Nov. 13 on MLB Network at 3 p.m.
Melvin has won the award twice, including 2012 with the A’s. He was the NL winner in 2007 with Arizona.
Melvin, who oversaw a 22-win improvement this season, has already been named Sporting News Manager of the Year this year.
The World Series champion Boston Red Sox might be in line for more hardware. In addition to Cora, Mookie Betts is a finalist for AL MVP. Los Angeles’ Mike Trout and Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez are also finalists for AL MVP.
Betts led the majors with a .346 average and .640 slugging percentage while setting career highs with 32 homers and a 1.078 OPS.
Trout has finished in the top two in AL MVP voting in five of the past six seasons after finishing fourth in 2017. Ramirez was third in the voting last year, when Houston’s Jose Altuve beat out Yankees slugger Aaron Judge.
Corey Kluber has a shot at a second straight AL Cy Young Award and third overall. The Cleveland right-hander is up against Tampa Bay’s Blake Snell and Houston’s Justin Verlander, who won the AL Cy Young and MVP Awards in 2011.
The AL Rookie of the Year award will come down to Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani and Yankees infielders Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres.
The two-way Japanese sensation is the first player ever to hit 15 home runs and strike out 50 batters in a season, and he joined Babe Ruth as the only players ever to hit 15 homers and pitch 50 innings.
Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich is the favorite for NL MVP, and Colorado’s Nolan Arenado and Chicago’s Javier Baez were also revealed as top vote-getters.
The Mets’ Jacob deGrom, Washington’s Max Scherzer and Philadelphia’s Aaron Nola are the top three for the NL Cy Young Award, with deGrom favored to win for the first time despite a 10-9 record. Felix Hernandez had 13 victories when he won the 2010 AL Cy Young, the fewest wins ever by a starting pitcher to win the award.
Milwaukee’s Craig Counsell, Colorado’s Bud Black and Atlanta’s Brian Snitker were named NL Manager of the Year candidates.
Atlanta’s Ronald Acuna Jr., Washington’s Juan Soto and Los Angeles’ Walker Buehler are the top three for NL Rookie of the Year.
• Late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, former managers Lou Piniella, Davey Johnson and Charlie Manuel, and six players headed by longtime Giants roving minor league pitching instructor Lee Smith are on the 10-man ballot for the baseball Hall of Fame’s Today’s Game Era committee to consider next month.
Longtime Giants first baseman Will Clark, former A’s designated hitter Harold Baines, one-time Giants Orel Hershiser and Joe Carter, and Albert Belle also are on the ballot for the 16-man committee, which meets Dec. 9 at the winter meetings in Las Vegas.
The committee considers candidates from 1998 to the present, and a candidate needs at least 75 percent of the vote to be elected.
Any candidate picked will be inducted July 21 along with any players elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in a vote announced Jan. 22. Mariano Rivera and the late Roy Halladay join a ballot with top returnees Edgar Martinez and Mike Mussina.
When the Today’s Game Era committee last met two years ago, former baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and Atlanta Braves executive John Schuerholz were elected. Piniella received seven votes, while Baines, Belle, Clark, Hershiser, Johnson and Steinbrenner each received fewer than five. Mark McGwire also received fewer than five and was dropped from this year’s ballot.
Smith’s highest voting percentage during 15 years on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot was 50.6 percent in 2012. The reliever received 34.2 percent in his 15th and final appearance in 2017.