Francona, Showalter voted baseball’s top managers

Two veteran baseball leaders with Arizona connections are MLB’s Managers of the Year. Cleveland’s Terry Francona, who was the most outstanding player of the 1980 College World Series won by Arizona, and Buck Showalter of the New York Mets, who was the original manager of the expansion Diamondbacks, were voted best in the American and National leagues, respectively, by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Francona won for the third time in 10 seasons. He received 17 of 30 first-place votes and nine second-place votes for 112 points to top runner-up Brandon Hyde of Baltimore.

A two-time World Series winner with Boston, Francona’s 10th season in Cleveland may have been his best managing job leading baseball’s youngest team to an unexpected AL Central title.

“It should be considered an organizational award, because that’s how I feel,” Francona said. “You start hearing people talk about you personally, it makes you a little uneasy, but for the things that it allows me to brag about our organization, that makes me really happy.”

Francona is the ninth person to win the award three times, while Showalter became just the third person to win a fourth award, all with different franchises.

He won with the Yankees in 1994, Rangers in 2004, Orioles in 2014 and now the Mets. The other fourtime winners are Hall of Famers Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa.

“The game has changed,” Showalter said of his four awards in four decades. “But in a lot of ways it’s stayed the same.”

Showalter, who led the Mets to the second-best regular season in franchise history, received eight of 30 first-place votes, 10 second-place votes and 77 total points, edging Los Angeles Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts, who finished second. Roberts also earned eight-first-place votes but had just four second-place votes for 57 points.