Here are the oldest Manager of the Year Award winners

Here are the oldest Manager of the Year Award winners

November 15th, 2023

Bruce Bochy and Brian Snitker -- two finalists for the 2023 Manager of the Year Awards -- ultimately didn't win their league's respective awards. That distinction went to the Orioles' Brandon Hyde and Marlins' first-year manager Skip Schumaker. 

Had Bochy and Snitker won, they would have been two of the oldest managers to win since the award debuted in 1983. While Bochy hasn't won since he was a mere 41 years old with the Padres in 1996, Snitker was already on this list as the ninth-oldest manager, having won the award in 2018 with the Braves at the age of 62 years, 163 days.

Below is the all-time leaderboard for oldest Manager of the Year winners, via the Elias Sports Bureau. All listed ages are as of that team’s first game of the season.

1. Jack McKeon, 2003 Marlins
Age: 72 years, 169 days
Team result: 91-71, beat Yankees in World Series

Across the last three decades of the 20th century, McKeon managed four different franchises (Royals, A’s, Padres, Reds) with no playoff appearances to show for it. But then the Marlins staggered to a 16-22 start in 2003 and decided they needed a change.

The rest was history.

After McKeon took over for Jeff Torborg on May 11, the Marlins surged to a 75-49 finish -- second-best in MLB over that time span, behind Atlanta’s 77-49. This was enough to sneak Florida into the playoffs as the NL’s lone Wild Card team, and from there, they defeated the Giants, Cubs (in a seven-game series you might remember for other reasons) and Yankees to win the second World Series in franchise history.

McKeon was the oldest manager to win a World Series at the time, though he was passed by Dusty Baker in 2022.

2. Davey Johnson, 2012 Nationals
Age: 69 years, 66 days
Team result: 98-64, lost to Cardinals in NLDS

Unlike McKeon, Johnson entered his tenure with the Nationals with a myriad of postseason accomplishments, having made five playoff appearances as a manager, including a World Series championship with the legendary 1986 Mets.

As such, it made sense that Johnson would be the man to lead the Nationals to their first playoff appearance since 1981 as the Montreal Expos. Led by a 19-year-old rookie named , Washington won a still-standing franchise record 98 games, finishing with MLB’s best record before being upset by the 88-74 Cardinals in a five-game NLDS.

3. Jack McKeon, 1999 Reds
Age: 68 years, 133 days
Team result: 96-67, lost one-game Wild Card tiebreaker to Mets

Though McKeon never made the playoffs prior to his aforementioned run with the Marlins, he did have a prior Manager of the Year Award, thanks to his efforts with the 1999 Reds. Led by a stacked offense featuring the likes of , and Greg Vaughn, Cincinnati won its most games since its 1976 World Series-winning season, ultimately finishing one game back of Houston in the NL Central race.

With both the Reds and Mets sitting at 96-66, there was a one-game tiebreaker, which New York won 5-0 thanks to a complete game from . But, of course, it wouldn’t take McKeon many more years to get his chance at postseason glory.

4. Buck Showalter, 2022 Mets
Age: 65 years, 319 days
Team result: 101-61, lost in NLWC to Padres

Though it was Dusty Baker who became the oldest manager to win a World Series last year, there were two other veteran managers who made history by taking home Manager of the Year hardware. You’ll get to the AL’s manager in question later, but for the NL, it was Showalter, who took home his fourth career MOY Award after winning one apiece with the Yankees, Rangers and Orioles.

Though was limited to 11 appearances due to injury, a star-studded infield featuring the likes of , and  led the Mets to their highest win total since going 108-54 in their 1986 championship season. However, the Mets fell to the Padres in their first playoff series, meaning Showalter still has not won a World Series in six postseason appearances.

5. Lou Piniella, 2008 Cubs
Age: 64 years, 216 days
Team result: 97-64, lost in NLDS to Dodgers

With an interesting mixture of veterans (, , ) and rookies ( and  are still the only pair of rookie teammates to start an All-Star Game), it took an all-time great manager to get the pieces to fit together for the 2008 Cubs.

Piniella was up to the task in his second season in Chicago, helping the Cubs win their most games in a season since going 98-56-1 in 1945. Though Chicago came up short in the playoffs, it was Piniella’s third career Manager of the Year Award, also having earned two with the Mariners.

6. Bobby Cox, 2005 Braves
Age: 63 years, 319 days
Team result: 90-72, lost in NLDS to Astros

The 2005 season was merely the icing on the cake for what was an outright legendary stretch of Braves baseball. Atlanta won the NL East in every completed season from 1991 to 2005 (excluding the strike-shortened 1994 season), with Cox being the manager for that entire time span. The streaks of 14 straight playoff appearances and 14 straight division titles are both all-time MLB records, with the latter being five more than the next-closest team (1998-2006 Yankees, at nine).

But perhaps the most impressive stat of all from the 2005 Braves? Cox was ejected “only” twice -- tied for his fewest in a 162-game season in his career.

7. Terry Francona, 2022 Guardians
Age: 62 years, 350 days
Team result: 92-70, lost in ALDS to Yankees

As previously alluded to, Showalter wasn’t the only elder statesman to earn Manager of the Year honors in 2022. After leading the Guardians to a division title, Francona earned the award for the third time in a 10-year span, also doing so in 2013 and 2016 with Cleveland.

Though Francona was on the older side, his 2022 roster was anything but. In fact, his top 10 hitters (by plate appearances) and top nine pitchers (by innings) were all younger than 30 as of July 1 of that season. But that youth didn’t stop Cleveland from earning its fourth AL Central title in a seven-season span.

8. Bobby Cox, 2004 Braves
Age: 62 years, 321 days
Team result: 96-66, lost in NLDS to Astros

Cox is, as you can tell by reading this story in its entirety, the oldest person to win consecutive Manager of the Year Awards, doing so in both 2004 and 2005 with Atlanta. 

But what made the 2004 season special -- and perhaps what voters were acknowledging by giving Cox the award -- was that the Braves found a much different way to win than during the majority of their dynastic run. Among the team’s legendary “Big Three” starting pitchers, signed with the Cubs entering the 2004 season, and had done so with the Mets one year prior.  was still on the roster, but he served as the closer in 2004. Yet the roster turnover ended up being no issue for Cox’s Braves, who took home another NL East title like clockwork.

9. Brian Snitker, 2018 Braves
Age: 62 years, 163 days
Team result: 90-72, lost to Dodgers in NLDS

Speaking of Braves teams on dynastic runs, the current Atlanta group has become the fourth team in MLB’s Divisional Era to win six straight division titles. That streak began in 2018, Snitker’s second full season as an MLB manager.

It remains to be seen if , and will become the next Maddux-Smoltz-Glavine, but what has been established is Snitker’s presence as an elite manager to follow in Cox’s footsteps. As for the 2018 team specifically, it was filled with young talent like , and , foreshadowing what would be a dominant run for Snitker and the franchise as a whole.

10. Jim Leyland, 2006 Tigers
Age: 61 years, 109 days
Team result: 95-67, lost to Cardinals in World Series

Leyland was an extremely accomplished manager in the 1990s, winning NL Manager of the Year with the Pirates in both 1990 and 1992, and then leading the Marlins to their first World Series win in franchise history in 1997. But when Detroit hired him as its manager in 2006, he was a full seven years removed from coaching, having last managed the 1999 Rockies.

As it turned out, the old skipper still had it.

Returning to the organization that first signed him as a catcher way back in 1963, Leyland turned things around for a team that finished 71-91 in 2005. Led by rookie pitcher and a deep offense including and , the Tigers reached the World Series for the first time since 1984, though they were upset by the 83-78 Cardinals (who still own the worst record by any WS champion).