The New York Mets’ Buck Showalter was named National League Manager of the Year on Tuesday night, his fourth time winning the award with his fourth different franchise.
Showalter, who becomes the first Mets manager to win the award, beat out finalists Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves’ Brian Snitker. Five different managers received multiple first-place votes — Showalter (8), Roberts (8), Snitker (7), Oliver Marmol of the St. Louis Cardinals (5) and the Philadelphia Phillies’ Rob Thomson (2).
Showalter in 2022 guided the Mets to the postseason for the first time since 2016. After three seasons away from the dugout, Showalter led New York to 101 wins, the most of any team he’s managed over 21 seasons.
Showalter, 66, previously won Manager of the Year honors while leading the New York Yankees (1994), Texas Rangers (2004) and Baltimore Orioles (2014). He joins Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa as the only managers to win Manager of the Year four times.
The 101 wins were the Mets’ highest total since the club won 108 games in 1986. New York finished in a first-place tie with the Braves in the NL East, although the Braves won the division crown on the head-to-head tiebreaker .
The Mets lost their wild-card series against the San Diego Padres 2-1 in the postseason.
Roberts, 50, guided the Dodgers to a franchise-record 111 wins, a high-water mark for an organization that has made the postseason in each of Roberts’ seven seasons in the dugout, including six NL West titles.
Roberts, who was named NL Manager of the Year in 2016, owns a career .632 regular-season winning percentage. That’s the highest percentage all-time among managers from one of baseball’s extant leagues.
Only Bullet Rogan, Vic Harris and Rube Foster, all of whom managed in the Negro Leagues, own higher lifetime winning percentages.
Snitker, 67, has gone from a career coach and minor league manager to a fixture atop annual NL Manager of the Year voting.
The Braves’ 101 wins in 2022 were their most during Snitker’s six-plus seasons with the franchise for which he’s worked since 1977. Atlanta extended its streak of NL East titles to five.
The last two seasons have seen Snitker help Atlanta withstand disappointing starts only to catch fire late in the season. In 2021, the Braves’ late-season hot streak culminated in a World Series championship.
The Braves didn’t get that far in 2022, losing in the NLDS to a red-hot Philadelphia Phillies team. Still, Atlanta trailed the Mets in the division race by seven games on Aug. 10 before coming all the way back to win the division.
Snitker has finished in the top four in NL Manager of the Year voting in five straight seasons.