Oakland Athletics manager Bob Melvin has been named the Sporting News American League Manager of the Year. It is his second Sporting News Manager of the Year Award after being named the National League winner with Arizona in 2007.
Melvin is just the third Athletics Manager to be named the Sporting News Manager of the Year, following Billy Martin (1981) and Tony La Russa (1988 & 1992). He is also a two-time winner of the Baseball Writers' Association of America Manager of the Year award with Arizona (2007) and Oakland (2012).
Melvin led the A's to the fourth best record in the Majors (97-65) and a postseason berth this season. It was Melvin's fourth time leading the A's to the postseason since joining the organization in 2011 and improved his record as A's skipper to 634-599 (.514). His win total is the third most in franchise history behind Connie Mack (3,582) and Tony La Russa (798).
The 22-win improvement from 2017 to 2018 (75-87 in 2017) was the third time a Bob Melvin-managed team increased its win total by 20 or more games from the previous season. Among active managers, only Bruce Bochy (SF), Ned Yost (KC), and Clint Hurdle (PIT) have longer uninterrupted tenures with their current teams.
The Sporting News AL Manager of the Year award is based on a survey of American League Managers and has been awarded every season since 1936.