It's difficult to make an argument against any of the three finalists for the 2018 American League Manager of the Year Award. In many other years, Alex Cora of the Red Sox would have been a runaway winner after leading Boston to the most wins in franchise history and a World Series championship -- in his first year at the helm of the team. But nobody in the league did more with less than Oakland's Bob Melvin and Tampa Bay's Kevin Cash, who turned young, low-cost rosters into a shocking 97 wins and an AL Wild Card Game berth for the A's and 90 wins for the Rays.
With the 2018 AL Manager of the Year set to be revealed in Tuesday's 6 p.m. ET announcement on MLB Network, here's a look at the case for each of the finalists.
• NL Manager of the Year Award: A case for each finalist
Kevin Cash, Rays
At the helm in one of baseball's smallest markets, every year presents challenges for a manager in Cash's position. But 2018 arguably brought more of one: near-continuous roster turnover, the losses of some of the franchise's most accomplished veterans and an awful start that threatened to make the Rays irrelevant by Memorial Day. How, then, did Tampa Bay finish 2018 with 90 wins, its highest total since 2013?
Much of the credit goes to Cash, the fourth-year skipper who turned one of baseball's most fluid and least experienced rosters into one of the sport's biggest surprises in 2018. Cash has long earned praise from in the industry for his communication and leadership skills and openness to implementing new ideas, and this year, that combination translated to the win column. The Rays played to a .593 winning percentage after starting the year 4-13, overcame injuries to several key pitchers and introduced the revolutionary "opener" strategy to the world.
The Rays used 31 pitchers and 19 rookies and won 28 one-run games. And ultimately, a calendar year that saw Tampa Bay trade veteran stalwarts Evan Longoria, Chris Archer and Alex Colome, among others, ended as the most successful of Cash's tenure.
As a reward, the Rays restructured what was left of Cash's original five-year, $5 million contract and signed him to an extension through 2024, with an option for 2025. That makes Cash, soon to be 41, not only one of the youngest managers in baseball, but also one of the most secure. Any hardware would only add to his resume.
--Joe Trezza

Alex Cora, Red Sox
Cora is aiming to be the first Red Sox skipper to be named AL Manager of the Year since Jimy Williams in 1999. Behind Cora, the Red Sox notched a franchise-record 108 wins. With one more victory, Cora would have tied Ralph Houk (1961 Yankees) for the most ever for a rookie manager.
With largely the same roster as in 2017, the Sox improved their win total by 15 games. That had a lot to do with the 43-year-old Cora, who drew rave reviews for the way he communicated with his players and for the way he blended analytics into his daily life in the dugout.
The process of Cora getting his players to buy in started in the weeks before Spring Training, when he went on a winter caravan to various regions of the country and met with most of the players on the team.
For his hitters, Cora preached hunting for pitches rather than being passive early in the count. This resulted in MVP finalist Mookie Betts and shortstop Xander Bogaerts both having major upticks in their numbers from the previous season. Cora also kept all of his position players involved all season, which made role players effective and also kept his starters fresh.
From a pitching standpoint, Cora closely managed the workload of the staff from the start of Spring Training through the end of the regular season, always with the postseason in mind. That enabled him to empty the tank in October as pitchers like David Price, Rick Porcello and Nathan Eovaldi went back and forth from the rotation to bullpen -- "rovers," as Cora called them.
In pressurized Boston, Cora remained unflappable. When he made a mistake, he usually owned up to it before anyone got the chance to criticize him.
--Ian Browne

Bob Melvin, Athletics
Melvin, already deemed the winner of the Sporting News AL Manager of the Year Award last month, is a frontrunner for yet another BBWAA honor. The longtime manager is a two-time winner of the prestigious award, having earned it with Arizona in 2007 and Oakland in 2012.
There's good reason for Melvin to win another, after he guided the A's to a surprising 97-win campaign -- the fourth-best record in the Majors -- and took them to the Wild Card Game against the Yankees despite fielding a team with the lowest Opening Day payroll in the league. Faced with limited resources and a host of injuries, Melvin and the A's scripted one of baseball's best stories in 2018. He effortlessly managed a ransacked rotation, a bullpen with multiple moving parts and a mostly inexperienced lineup, his players continuously showing faith in his decision-making throughout.
Their 22-win improvement amazingly marked the third time Melvin has led a team to a 20-game improvement. While they were eliminated by the Yankees in the Wild Card Game in the Bronx, the A's appear poised to compete for years to come, thanks in no small part to Melvin.
--Jane Lee