In his two years away from baseball from 2014-15, Dusty Baker was a busy man. He worked on his wine business and spent time watching his son play baseball and his daughter be married. Baker fished in Canada and relaxed in Montana.
Baker also watched baseball. He wondered why certain teams or people would not call him back when he expressed interest in job openings. He considered that his time in professional baseball may finally be up almost 50 years after it began. Then, the Washington Nationals called. He was hired in the offseason at the conclusion of a convoluted process to take over a team that had flopped the season before because of injury and ineffectiveness.
Tuesday, Baker finished third in National League Manager of the Year voting. Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers finished first after taking a Dodgers club that was eight games out of first place in the middle of the season to a National League West division title. Joe Maddon of the Chicago Cubs was second.
Roberts received 15 first-place votes, Maddon eight and Baker four. Baker finished just behind Maddon with a total of 66 points (five points for first, three points for second and one for third) to his 70. Roberts was an easy winner with 108 points.
Also of note is that Roberts and Baker were Major League Baseball’s only minority managers this season.
“I think it’s important because there are people who want to follow in our footsteps,” Baker said on MLB Network.
Baker has been named Manager of the Year three times: 1993, 1997 and 2000; only Tony La Russa and Bobby Cox, who have four victories apiece, have won more. He has finished second three times: 2003, 2010, 2012. He has also finished fourth (1998) and fifth (2002). Tuesday was his first third-place finish when among finalists for the award.
The Nationals won 95 games last season, making them the ninth team led by Baker to win at least 90 games in his 21 seasons as a manager. His 1,766 wins as a manager are 17th all-time and second among active managers. San Francisco’s Bruce Bochy has 1,789 wins in 22 seasons.
Those accomplishments have made Baker wonder about his critics or people trying to figure out how the games were won. He’s curious why he can’t simply be viewed as good at his job.
The work he did in his first season in Washington was expected, which isn’t to say it was easy. Baker is known to have quality relationships with his players thanks to a gregarious personality and his experience as a player. When current players on the Nationals reached out to players Baker had managed prior, they heard the same thing back: You’re going to love him. Which, according to their public statements, they did during the season.
“He’s gone all season — we’ve been winning so that makes things a lot easier, obviously — but we haven’t had too many issues on this team,” outfielder Jayson Werth said late in the season. “We’ve had our disagreements and a couple tiffs here and there, but never really ran into an all-out brawl or a blowup situation like most teams do. I think every year you go through something. We kind of didn’t really have that. I think that’s a testament to Dusty and the way he runs the ship. It’s a warm place, it’s an inviting place and that’s the type of guy he is.”
That was the personal side. On the field, Washington bounced back from an 83-win season to win the National League East Division title for the third time in five years. Their loss in the National League Division Series to Roberts and the Dodgers did not influence voting since it takes place when the regular season concludes and before the playoffs begin.
Roberts made the most pitching changes, 606, of any manager in baseball history. In the playoffs, he talked about how he moved from “traditional” use of his bullpen, a strategy filled with hardened roles for players depending on the inning as opposed to situation, to a more matchup-based approach. Roberts also managed his team through a back injury to ace Clayton Kershaw that caused the left-hander to not pitch in the majors from June 26 to Sept. 9. The Dodgers placed 28 players on the disabled list during the season. By contrast, the Nationals had just 10 players go on the disabled list.
Maddon managed expectations and his team in Chicago. The Cubs were anticipated to be a force throughout the season and came through. Chicago led MLB with 103 wins. The Cubs spent 159 days in first place. They were never more than one game out of first place in the National League Central division.
New York Mets manager Terry Collins finished fourth thanks to two first-place votes. Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly was fifth. He received two third-place votes.
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