One season, one Manager of the Year award for Matt Williams. (USATSI)
Matt Williams of the Washington Nationals has won the 2014 National League Manager of the Year award, as voted upon by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
As a reminder, before we get any further: Voting is conducted immediately after the regular season and does not include postseason performance.
Williams, 48, was a first-year manager in 2014, taking over what had been a disappointing Nationals team in 2013. They’d win 96 games this past season, a 10-game improvement, taking the NL East by a whopping 17 games.
It wasn’t always smooth sailing, either, as the Nationals had a few injuries to major players (Ryan Zimmerman, Bryce Harper, Doug Fister, etc.) and Williams had to make the decision to change closers in September. They were also under .500 as late as June 1. Even as late as June 27, they were but three games over .500.
The rest of the way, though, the Nationals would go 55-28, which was the best record in the majors during that span.
Williams also won 20 of his 31 challenges.
The Manager of the Year has been awarded annually since 1983 and Williams is the second Nationals’ manager to take the honor after Davey Johnson in 2012. The franchise also saw Buck Rodgers win in 1987 and Felipe Alou in 1994 for the Montreal Expos.
The other finalists this time around were Clint Hurdle of the Pirates and Bruce Bochy of the Giants, the two skippers of the wild-card winners. We know now that Bochy went on to win the World Series, but the voters didn’t when ballots were cast and, again, this is a regular season award.
Hurdle finished second in the voting with Bochy coming in third and Mike Matheny of the Cardinals checking in at fourth. Full voting breakdown is available via the BBWAA, which can be seen by clicking here.
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