AL Manager of the Year: Updated Rankings for Ron Washington and Top Contenders

Jun 1, 2018

We're now halfway through the second month of the 2012 Major League Baseball season. The division races are starting to take shape, and they don't quite look how many of us expected them to look.

There's only one division leader in the American League that doesn't come as a surprise, and that's the Texas Rangers. They don't have a single weakness, and every last man on the roster plays his heart out for Ron Washington.

As long as they keep it up, Washington is going to be high in the running for the American League Manager of the Year award. He hasn't won it yet, but he just might this year if things fall into place.

But is he the man to beat in the AL right now?

Let's take a look. Here are my updated AL Manager of the Year rankings.

Note: Feel free to check out last week's rankings.

5. Ron Washington, Texas Rangers

1 of 6

Last Week: No. 5

Last week, I had Washington at No. 5 on my rankings. You could make the case that he should be higher, but I made the point last week that it's easy to win baseball games when you have as much talent as Washington has.

Not a whole lot has changed over the last seven days. If anything, Washington's claim to the Manager of the Year award has actually gotten weaker. The Rangers have lost four of their last seven games.

This is a small sample size, to be sure, but now is as good a time as ever for us to realize that there's one key concern when it comes to this Rangers team, and that's complacency.

The Rangers know they're a good team, and they know that they're probably going to qualify for the postseason when all is said and done. And because they've lost the World Series each of the last two years, their focus is on winning it all, not on winning games during the regular season.

It's Washington's job to make sure his guys stay focused. If the Rangers win 100 games instead of 95, that's when we'll know Washington did an outstanding job.

Only then will he win the Manager of the Year award. It's going to take a truly special season—a la Joe Torre and the Yankees in 1998.

4. Manny Acta, Cleveland Indians

2 of 6

Last Week: No. 3

The Indians are overachieving this year.

If that upsets any Indians fans out there, I'd just like to point out that this is not necessarily a bad thing. 'Tis better to overachieve than to underachieve.

Manny Acta very much deserves credit for Cleveland's success this season. He doesn't have a ton of talent to work with, but he's managed (no pun intended) to make the Indians better than the sum of their parts. That's not an easy thing to do.

My one issue with the Indians is that they tend to play their best against inferior competition. They played a very easy schedule in April, and it hasn't gotten a whole lot harder in May.

Yes, they did score a very nice series victory against the Rangers earlier this month, but that was quickly washed away by a split against the White Sox at home and a series loss to the mediocre Red Sox at Fenway Park.

The Indians have righted their ship with four wins in a row, but they've come against arguably the two worst teams in the AL (in the Twins and Mariners).

Acta is doing a great job and it's been fun to watch the Indians play so well, but I'm not 100-percent convinced yet.

3. Bob Melvin, Oakland Athletics

3 of 6

Last Week: Unranked

The A's have no business being above .500 at this point in the season. Their lineup is among the weakest in baseball, and they've had to play a pretty rough schedule this month.

The amazing part is that the A's have tackled this schedule pretty well. They have yet to lose a series this month, and they have very quietly moved into the thick of the AL wild card race.

Bob Melvin has done a fine job doing what he can with what he's got. Despite the fact the team lost Yoenis Cespedes to the DL earlier this month and has had to deal with several other injuries recently, Melvin keeps getting just enough out of his lineups. He's further helped himself by working wonders with the team's pitching.

Specifically, Melvin has managed Oakland's bullpen very well. Not a whole lot of people have noticed, but the A's have a bullpen ERA under 3.00, and his decision to use Brian Fuentes to close games instead of Grant Balfour has worked like a charm.

My gut tells me that there's no way the A's are going to keep this up. But for now, they're playing good baseball, and Melvin is pushing the right buttons.

TOP NEWS

Washington Nationals v Los Angeles Angels

Bleacher Report1w

Bleacher Report1w

2. Joe Maddon, Tampa Bay Rays

4 of 6

Last Week: No. 2

The Rays went through a rough patch for a little while there, losing six out of seven between May 5th and 12th.

Nonetheless, they entered Thursday on a four-game winning streak, and they still feature prominently in the AL postseason chase.

As per usual, Joe Maddon's managerial skills are being put to the test. It was bad enough losing Evan Longoria to the DL. Things got even worse when Desmond Jennings had to go on the DL earlier this week (see MLB.com).

Losses like these hardly matter to the Rays. As long as they have solid pitching and players eager to play their brand of baseball, they're going to win more often than they lose.

Maddon is at the heart of "Rays baseball." All managers are tacticians, but Maddon puts everyone else to shame. He treats baseball games like chess matches in which it's always his move.

It's a game he plays very well.

1. Buck Showalter, Baltimore Orioles

5 of 6

Last Week: No. 1

As I'm writing this, the Baltimore Orioles have the best record in the American League.

Yes, even better than the Texas Rangers.

There are myriad reasons why the Orioles are so much better this year than they were last year. They've gotten surprisingly good work out of their starting rotation, their bullpen has been excellent, they've hit a ton of home runs on offense, and so on and so on.

The key difference between this year and last year is that the losing culture that was hanging over the franchise like a dark cloud is gone. Buck Showalter is directly responsible for that.

Showalter has done what he does best. He's taken over a moribund franchise and gotten it to shape up. He's been rewarded with the Manager of the Year award twice before for these sorts of efforts.

Don't be surprised if he gets it again this year.