NL Manager of the Year Rankings: Davey Johnson, Don Mattingly Leading Contenders

With division races tightening and injuries occurring on various rosters, the National League Manager of the Year race is getting more interesting. 

Obviously, it's still early in the season. Too early, really, to get an idea of how managers will cope and adapt with the trials to be endured through a full 162-game schedule. 

As I wrote last week, expectations typically determine how a manager is viewed. And, based on recent developments, some early projections are now going to be tested.

Which teams will handle success? Who might falter when presented with a challenging division rival? And injuries. Oh, those injuries; there might be no greater test for a manager to deal with.

Taking those factors into consideration, these five managers look like the current top contenders for the 2012 NL Manager of the Year award.

5. Fredi Gonzalez, Atlanta Braves

Managers for good teams are often overlooked when it comes to Manager of the Year voting. Again, it's all about expectations.

If a team was predicted to be good, then did the manager really do anything special by guiding them through a successful season? The perception seems to be that the manager just didn't screw a good thing up.

Fredi Gonzalez appeared to have screwed up last season by managing one of the great tailspins in major-league history, blowing an 8.5-game wild-card lead and missing the playoffs. 

How would the Braves rebound from that kind of disappointment? This was the same team coming back, with no significant changes or additions.

So far, Gonzalez and his team have taken on that challenge and thrown it to the ground. The Braves have been at or near the top of the NL East all season long, avoiding the sinkholes that the Philadelphia Phillies and Miami Marlins have fallen into. 

But now, Gonzalez faces a different type of challenge after the Braves' weekend sweep of the Cardinals. Atlanta looks like it could be the best team in the NL. So how will they handle that sort of success? Will the Braves sort of coast on good feelings or keep driving ahead and assert themselves over the rest of the league? 

Gonzalez might be helped by the upcoming schedule, with plenty of strong teams to face in the weeks to come. That should help prevent the Braves from becoming lackadaisical, if indeed that was a danger to begin with. 

4. Terry Collins, New York Mets

The New York Mets are holding steady in the NL East, two games out of first place. Terry Collins is still getting more than should be expected out of a rather lackluster lineup and a decent starting rotation.

But handling a bullpen can be one of the most difficult tasks a manager faces. And Collins has some negotiating to do with his current relief corps. Closer Frank Francisco blew two games against the Marlins this past weekend, and it was expected that Collins would pull him from the role for the time being. 

Yet on Monday night, with a ninth-inning lead to protect, Collins went with Francisco. Some managers believe you have to show confidence in a reliever by sending him right back out there. That seems to be the philosophy Collins is employing here. 

Francisco tested his manager's faith by allowing one run and two hits. Evidently, a clean inning is a bit much to ask for right now. 

But Collins may have done some major work as far as keeping Francisco and the rest of the Mets clubhouse on his side. Sticking with a player when he's not doing well can go a long way toward getting his best effort and credits in the goodwill department. This could pay some big dividends for Collins as the season wears on. 

3. Mike Matheny, St. Louis Cardinals

The general perception with Mike Matheny is that the best way he could manage the St. Louis Cardinals is to basically stay out of the way and let the defending World Series champions do what they do. (Ozzie Smith affirmed that very sentiment.) 

So far, that approach has worked for Matheny and the Cardinals. But what happens when they hit a rough patch?

The Cards have lost four in a row and seven of their last 12 heading into Tuesday night's play. That's shrunk their first-place lead over the Cincinnati Reds to 1.5 games. And now, injuries are beginning to become a factor.

Center fielder Jon Jay is going on the 15-day disabled list with an injured shoulder. Carlos Beltran, who's been playing like an MVP candidate, is nursing a sore knee.

Fortunately for Matheny, he has Allen Craig to plug into the lineup. Craig has been hitting so well (.372/.420/.814, five homers, 16 RBI) that Matheny was compelled to find at-bats for him, despite no regular position available to play. That was going to be a nice problem for the manager to have. Having to fill in spots due to injury is not. 

Matheny's merit should definitely be tested during the Cards' upcoming West Coast road trip. 

2. Don Mattingly, Los Angeles Dodgers

We're about to find out what kind of manager Don Mattingly really is.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have been hot, winning five straight and six of seven against their NL West rivals. In the process, they've rolled up the best record in the major leagues at 24-11. With a six-game cushion, they also hold the biggest first-place margin of the six current division leaders. 

But a major reason for the Dodgers' success had been the play of Matt Kemp, who was looking like an early-season lock for National League MVP. But Kemp has been plagued by a sore hamstring, which first resulted in him going through an 0-for-13 slump and now has him on the 15-day DL. 

Without Kemp, the Dodgers don't have a very impressive lineup. This is a team that thought picking up Bobby Abreu would improve things. (As it turns out, that was a correct assessment.)

Losing Juan Uribe doesn't help, either. Roll your eyes at that sentence, but even though Uribe wasn't hitting very well (.640 OPS), he still has to be replaced.

The strength of the Dodgers is their starting pitching, and Mattingly will have to lean on that over the next couple of weeks while the offense struggles. Obviously, having Clayton Kershaw, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, helps, but Ted Lilly, Chris Capuano and Chad Billingsley have each pitched well also.

If Mattingly can successfully juggle the rest of his bullpen around youngsters Kenley Jansen and Josh Lindblom, the Dodgers should stay on track. And he'll deserve plenty of credit for doing so. 

1. Davey Johnson, Washington Nationals

The Washington Nationals just keep losing players. Just when you think they've suffered the one injury that will derail their surprising season, another guy goes down reminding us that it could always get worse.

A week after losing outfielder Jayson Werth for the next couple of months with a broken wrist, catcher Wilson Ramos tore his right ACL and is out for the season. On the bright side, Michael Morse, the Nats' top power hitter last year, might be coming back in early June.

Injuries have also caused problems with the Nationals bullpen. Drew Storen has been out since the spring after having bone chips removed from his elbow. And Brad Lidge is on the DL with an abdominal strain. 

Those developments have forced Johnson to use Henry Rodriguez as closer, something that may not be working out that well. With a three-run lead on Monday, Rodriguez couldn't make it through the ninth, walking the bases loaded. Johnson pulled him before he blew the game and tapped into his deep bullpen to close out a win. 

Figuring out how best to use breakout relievers like Craig Stammen and Ryan Mattheus, while sticking with setup man Tyler Clippard while he struggled has demonstrated Johnson's deft touch. (Of course, it helps that he has those relievers to use.) As mentioned earlier, properly handling a bullpen might be a manager's most difficult task.

Couple that with trying to tutor rookie Bryce Harper, who showed some of his impulsiveness by slamming a wall with his bat and opening a cut on his forehead with the ricochet. Instead of chewing Harper out over the incident, however, Johnson used it as an opportunity to counsel the 19-year-old on properly channeling anger and frustration.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Harper has hit his first two major league home runs since then.

Johnson stays calm while everything seems to go crazy around him. The Nationals are definitely taking a cue from him and the approach has been working.