Maddon, Banister named Managers of the Year
NEW YORK — Joe Maddon and Jeff Banister were a huge hit in their new jobs. Now, immediate team success has reaped individual rewards.
Maddon won his third Manager of the Year award Tuesday and Banister his first after each guided an unexpected run to the playoffs.
In his initial season with the Chicago Cubs, Maddon took the National League prize following the club's first postseason appearance since 2008. He also won in the AL with Tampa Bay in 2008 and 2011.
“It's really good to know that what you believe in works in other places,” Maddon said during a break from his pizza-and-wine celebration with family and friends. “I didn't tweak anything. It was the same approach.”
Maddon received 18 of 30 first-place votes and 124 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. He beat out St. Louis' Mike Matheny and the New York Mets' Terry Collins by a surprisingly comfortable margin, becoming the seventh manager to win the award at least three times and the seventh to earn it in both leagues.
“To be the steward of this wonderful group of young players, I feel very fortunate,” Maddon said on MLB Network.
Banister garnered 17 first-place votes and 112 points, easily topping Houston's A.J. Hinch and Hall of Famer Paul Molitor from the Minnesota Twins, another rookie skipper.
Banister joined Houston's Hal Lanier (1986), San Francisco's Dusty Baker (1993), Florida's Joe Girardi (2006) and Washington's Matt Williams (2014) as the only men to win in their first season as a major league manager.Texas won 88 games this season — 21 more than last year — in capturing the AL West title despite several significant injuries, including losing ace Yu Darvish for the entire season to elbow surgery.Maddon left Tampa Bay last fall and signed a $25 million, five-year contract to manage the Cubs. He took over a team that was coming off five straight losing seasons and hadn't won a playoff game since 2003.With his colorful, fun-loving manner, the 61-year-old Maddon led a young club to the third-best record in the majors at 97-65. That was 24 wins better than the previous season.
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