Twins’ Molitor finishes 3rd in AL Manager of Year voting

Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon won his third Manager of the Year award after guiding the Cubs to a 97-65 record and a berth in the NLCS.

Maddon was selected over Mike Matheny of the St. Louis Cardinals and Terry Collins of the NY Mets.

Bannister is the first Rangers manager to earn the honor since Buck Showalter was named manager of the year in 2004. All three were first-year managers with their respective teams and Banister and Molitor were first-time managers.

A day later, general manager Sandy Alderson acquired Cespedes, and that night Wilmer Flores – who nearly had been shipped to the Brewers for Carlos Gomez in a deal that fell through – hit a walk-off homer in the 12th inning to beat the Nationals for the first win of what became a three-game sweep.

Voting members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America cast their ballots prior to the start of the postseason.

“To be the steward of this wonderful group of young players, I feel very fortunate”, Maddon said on Major League Baseball Network. The Cubs made a 24-game improvement under Maddon, who joins Jim Frey (1984), Don Zimmer (1989) and Lou Piniella (2008) as managers who have won the award with the Cubs.

Then, Banister turned it around and eventually caught the Astros in the final weeks of the year to win the AL West, as the Astros were stuck with a Wild Card spot.

Hinch finished second with eight first-place votes and 82 points. He took over a team that was coming off five straight losing seasons and hadn’t won a playoff game since 2003. Bryant was chosen NL Rookie of the Year on Monday, and ace pitcher Jake Arrieta is one of three finalists for the NL Cy Young Award to be announced Wednesday.

“The spotlight is shining from Wrigley Field”, Maddon said.