CLEVELAND, Ohio —Depending on how you view managers, the AL Central could be an interesting division to watch in the coming years.
This season the Central sent three teams to the postseason in the Guardians, Royals and Tigers.
Stephen Vogt, in his rookie year, led the Guardians to the division title with a 92-66 record.
Kansas City’s Matt Quatraro and Detroit’s A.J. Hinch finished with identical 86-76 records. Second-place went to the Royals because they won the head-to-head tiebreaker.
The Guardians, who earned a first-round bye with the second best record in the AL, beat the Tigers in the ALDS before falling to the Yankees in the ALCS.
The Royals swept the Orioles in the wild card before losing to the Yankees in four games in the ALDS.
The Tigers swept the Astros in the wild card before losing to the Guards in five games in the ALDS.
On Tuesday, Vogt, Quatraro and Hinch were finalists for the AL Manager of the Year award as voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America. The award went to Vogt, who retired as a player following the 2022 season with Oakland.
It was an easy win for Vogt as he collected 27 of a possible 30 first-place votes. Quatraro finished second with 73 points and Hinch finished third with 41.
Vogt won because the Guardians nearly went wire-to-wire in first place. They moved into the top spot on April 14 and stayed there thanks to a hot start and a hard-working bullpen. Vogt earned points for not falling on his face after replacing Terry Francona, the winningest manager in franchise history.
One of the reasons he was able to avoid that pitfall was because he played everyone on the 26-man roster. He didn’t like the idea of asking players to deliver in tough situations after they hadn’t played in five or six games.
Cleveland’s front office didn’t overwhelm Vogt with outside help. They added borderline free agents such as Austin Hedges and Ben Lively to the youngest roster in the big leagues and told Vogt to ‘go get em.”
Royals manager Matt Quatraro led his team to the postseason this year after losing 106 games in 2023.AP
Quatraro, in his second year as Kansas City’s manager, received more help from the free agent market. The Royals added Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo to the rotation, outfielder Hunter Renfroe and relievers Will Smith and Chris Stratton. He also had the pleasure of watching Bobby Witt Jr., runnerup to Aaron Judge in the AL MVP voting, for the second straight year.
Still, the Royals rebounding from 106 losses in 2023 was a credit to Quatraro’s leadership. The Royals went 33-19 in the Central compared to 30-22 by Cleveland and 28-24 by the Tigers. Besides having a winning record against Detroit, they were 8-5 against the Guards.
While Vogt and Quatraro are still getting acclimated to managing, Hinch has been around the block. This was his 11th season on the job.
Hinch won a World Series and two pennants with the Astros, but it would be hard to imagine he’s ever done a better job with the nuts and bolts of managing than he did this year.
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch brought him team back from the brink to make the postseason for the first time in 10 years.AP Photo/John Bazemore
The Tigers’ season was done on July 30, MLB’s trade deadline. They lost to the Guardians, 5-0, at Comerica Park and traded starter Jack Flaherty to the Dodgers after the game. They were 52-57 and 14 games out of first place.
In early August, they had a 0.2% chance of making the postseason.
But after that 5-0 loss, the Tigers went 34-19. They clinched their first playoff spot in 10 years on Sept. 28.
Hinch did it with a two-man rotation of Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal and Keider Montero. For the other games, Hinch used some kind of bullpen game. He called it “pitching chaos” and it worked.
Detroit lefty Tyler Holton started against Cleveland on July 23 and went 1 2/3 innings. Two days later he started against the Guardians again and went two innings. The Tigers split those games.
“I’ve been managing like it’s Game 7 for the last two months,” Hinch told Detroit reporters.
Three teams, three managers, one division, one race.. Wouldn’t it be great if we haven’t see the last of such stuff.
People to remember:
- Former Cleveland catcher Eric Haase signed a one-year deal with the Brewers worth $1.35 million.
- Outfielder Ramon Laureano, who opened last season with the Guardians, was non-tendered by the Braves. Laureano, after being released by the Guards, hit .296 (64 for 216) with 10 homers and 29 RBI for Atlanta.
- Fromer Guardians right-hander Cal Quantrill was non-tendered for the second straight year Friday. The Guardians non-tendered him after the 2023 season and traded him to the Rockies. The Rockies non-tendered him rather than pay him a projected $9 million in arbitration. Quantrill went 8-11 with a 4.98 ERA in 29 starts. He led the NL with 69 walks.
- Right-hander Julian Merryweather, former Cleveland farmhand, avoided arbitration with the Cubs by signing a one-year deal worth $1.225 million.
- Right-hander Enjel De Los Santos, who gave the Guards two solid year in the pen in 2022 and 2023, was non-tendered by the White Sox. De Los Santos pitched for the Padres, Yankees and White Sox last season after the Guards traded him to San Diego for Scott Barlow.