The case for each 2026 Manager of the Year finalist

Managers take a lot of heat over the course of a season, but there's little doubt that a good skipper can be the difference between success and failure for a club. So which of them had the biggest impact in 2026?

The six guys nominated for the 2026 Manager of the Year Award are a particularly interesting bunch with little in common other than their trips to the postseason. (Awards voting, we should note, is conducted at the end of the regular season.) Five of the six candidates did not appear among the finalists for the award in 2025, and two -- Boston's Chad Tracy and Philadelphia's Don Mattingly - weren't even at the helm with their respective teams on Opening Day.

Along with Tracy, the American League nominees include Kevin Cash of the AL champion Rays and Will Venable of the White Sox, who took his club to the ALDS after their now-infamous run of three consecutive 100-loss seasons from 2023-25.

In the National League, Mattingly is joined by the Braves' Walt Weiss, who oversaw a 94-win division title in his first year in Atlanta, and Milwaukee's Pat Murphy, who could win his third consecutive NL Manager of the Year Award after leading the Brewers to their first World Series championship last month.

Here's a look at the case for all six Manager of the Year candidates before the winners are officially announced on Tuesday.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Kevin Cash, Rays
Venable is sure to get a lot of credit for helping the White Sox outperform their preseason expectations, and Tracy will get some love for leading Boston’s turnaround from the low point at which the Red Sox fired Alex Cora.

But in case you missed it, the Rays had the best record in the AL -- and it’s not like they were expected to be a juggernaut entering the season.

After missing the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, Tampa Bay was widely picked and projected to finish fifth in the AL East this year. On Opening Day, FanGraphs projected the Rays to finish 79-83 with a roughly 25.2% chance to reach the postseason and a 4.3% chance to win the division.

They finished 98-64, won the AL East by 4 1/2 games and earned the top spot in the league’s postseason field. This is a regular-season award, so the Rays winning the AL pennant technically isn’t a factor in this discussion.

Cash still possesses what president of baseball operations Erik Neander described as “the rarest blend of strength and humility.” That has allowed him to create a culture in which everyone feels comfortable enough to get the most out of their abilities, and it’s given him the ability to evolve over time to get the most out of his roster.

That was evident this year as the Rays leaned into more small-ball tactics toward the bottom of the order, among other strategies that helped squeeze every possible win out of a group with one of the lowest payrolls in the Majors.

Cash would be the first one to tell you that the front office deserves credit for putting the Rays’ roster together, and the players deserve credit for winning as many games as they did. That is part of what makes Cash, the longest-tenured manager in the Majors and a two-time AL Manager of the Year, deserving of this award once again.

-- Adam Berry

Chad Tracy, Red Sox
What a pressurized situation Tracy was put into. On April 25, he was going about his job managing the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox. Shortly after that game, he received a phone call from Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow to pack his bags and hustle to Baltimore. He was named interim manager after the surprising dismissal of Alex Cora. Instead of being panicky or nervous, Tracy created instant calm and helped the Red Sox turn their season around in stunning fashion. It took a while. On June 25, the Sox went to the ballpark with a 32-46 record, and had the worst winning percentage (.410) in the American League. Starting that day, the Sox caught fire, going on a 32-5 run that vaulted the club back into the postseason picture.

Some referred to it as the Tracy transformation. It felt a lot like the summer of 1988 when another interim manager named Joe Morgan piloted his Red Sox to “Morgan’s Magic,” when the team went from nine games out at the All-Star break to AL East champs. Helping Tracy hit the ground running was that so many of the players on the roster played for him during his four-plus year stint managing Worcester. But Tracy earned the player’s respect all over again while performing in a role that came with much more pressure. Tracy guided the Red Sox to a postseason appearance that few thought could happen in June. The Sox went 77-58 under Tracy, including 55-29 in the final 84 games. The interim tag was replaced by a three-year contact extension on Sept. 22.

-- Ian Browne

Will Venable, White Sox
From 2023-2025, the White Sox lost 100-plus games every season. They dropped a Modern Era record of 121 in 2024. For four straight seasons, the White Sox were not truly a playoff contender.

Then came the exciting and highly successful 2026 campaign. But before that special ‘26 run came Will Venable. The team’s new manager guided the White Sox to 60 victories during his first year at the helm, including a 29-37 improvement after the All-Star break with a +3 run differential. Most importantly, Venable set a defined culture for the team: Playing hard for 27 outs, over 162 games. Focusing one game at a time and being as best prepared for that day’s contest. Playing for each other more so than the expected norm of just being in the same lineup, same pitching staff or same team.

White Sox players ran with that set culture and turned it into a clear-cut organization identity. They believed great results were ahead for the ‘26 season as early as SoxFest in late January, long before anyone else was close to believing in them. That belief translated into 84 wins, the sixth seed and third Wild Card in the American League playoffs and the organization’s first postseason series victory since the ‘05 World Series run.

The White Sox swept the Astros in the Wild Card round, but ultimately came up short in the Division Series by losing three straight to Cleveland after winning the first two of the best-of-five in Cleveland. Good fortunes look as they have only just begun, with Venable serving as the perfect dugout co-pilot for general manager Chris Getz and the quintessential dugout/clubhouse leader for this exciting young team.

-- Scott Merkin

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Don Mattingly, Phillies
The Phillies were in a bad place on April 26. They lost a Sunday afternoon game to the Braves in Atlanta to fall to 9-19. The night before, they snapped a 10-game losing streak. It was early, but it was bleak. So, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski fired Rob Thomson on April 28 and replaced him with Mattingly. The Phillies had the fourth-best record in baseball the rest of the season, capturing the third NL Wild Card on the final day of the season.

Mattingly managed a talented, but flawed roster. He had an offense that ranked among the bottom third in baseball in almost every notable offensive category. He had a bullpen that — toward the end of the season — had major holes, forcing him to lean almost exclusively on closer Jhoan Duran, rookie Alex McFarlane and left-hander Tim Mayza. He also worked with a below-average defense. Still, Mattingly found a way to win enough games to capture the organization’s fifth consecutive trip to the postseason. The Phillies removed Mattingly's “interim” tag in October, making him the unquestioned man in charge in 2027-28.

-- Todd Zolecki

Pat Murphy, Brewers
Murphy was the first Brewers manager to win this award after leading the Brewers to a division title in 2024 in his first year as skipper. Then he led the Brewers to a franchise-record and Major League-leading 97 victories in 2025 and won again, making him one of only four managers to win in consecutive years. Nobody has ever won the award three years in a row.

So, is there a chance that voter fatigue stands in Murphy’s way this year after the Brewers again set a franchise record for victories in the regular season (103) and again led the Major Leagues while again defying expectations? Perhaps. But this might have been the 67-year-old’s best job yet, considering that projection systems expected 81-82 wins for the Brewers going into this season, and nearly every expert picked the Cubs to win the NL Central. Murphy and the Brewers ignored those low expectations and won with a starting rotation composed almost entirely of players with less than two years of Major League experience, including 80 starts by rookies – most in MLB. They won with a rookie shortstop from June onward in Cooper Pratt, who was benched by Murphy in August for perceived lack of hustle and responded by hitting .304 in September. They won with a proud catcher, William Contreras, who was benched for the same reason in late September even though Murphy knew he would need Contreras’ in October. And they won with players like Jake Bauers, Garrett Mitchell, Jackson Chourio and NL MVP Award finalist Brice Turang all having career years.

-- Adam McCalvy

Walt Weiss, Braves
As Weiss navigated his way through his first season as Atlanta’s skipper, he proved that he had his players’ backs in more ways than one. The 62-year-old manager’s successful season was first highlighted on April 7, when he tackled Angels designated hitter Jorge Soler during a benches-clearing brawl. Atlanta’s players responded with a 20-6 stretch that enabled them to claim early command of the NL East.

The Braves lost four starting pitchers to injuries during Spring Training and one of their top right-handed hitters Jurickson Profar was given a 162-game PED suspension before the season began. But the Braves sat atop the NL East standings from April 8 through the end of what was their seventh division-winning season within the past nine years.

Ronald Acuña Jr. missed nearly two months because of two separate left hamstring strains and top setup man Robert Suárez missed most of the season’s final three months with an elbow injury. But even as injuries continued to wreck his rotation depth, Weiss kept the ship afloat and provided his team a chance to finish strong.

Weiss’ club entered June with a nine-game division lead and then went 9-14 during what proved to be the season’s roughest month. The even-keeled manager’s refusal to show any sign of panic paid off when the Braves won 15 of their first 20 games after the All-Star break.

Weiss had his team ready for what proved to be some of the season’s most important stretches. A three-game sweep of the Dodgers in late August was followed by the Braves taking four of the seven games played against the second-place Phillies in September.

-- Mark Bowman