Major League Baseball announced the 2018 National League Manager of the Year, which saw Atlanta Braves skipper Brian Snitker take home the award in his second year at the helm. Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell finished just behind him in second, followed by Bud Black of the Colorado Rockies.
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts garnered one third-place and finished in sixth in voting. St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Schildt, who took over for Mike Matheny midway through the year, came in fourth followed by Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon in fifth.
Snitker received 17 of the 30 first-place votes, while Counsell received 11 and Black and Maddon each received one. The third-place vote given to Roberts was from Matt Snyder of CBS Sports.
The 2018 season was perhaps the most difficult of Roberts’ three so far with the Dodgers. He has led them to NL West division championships in all three years, winning Manager of the Year in 2016 and reaching the NL Championship Series three consecutive seasons and the World Series in each of the last two years.
This was the first year that Roberts was not named one of the three finalists for NL Manager of the Year.
The Dodgers dealt with a ton of injuries in 2018 with stars like Justin Turner, Corey Seager, Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Kenley Jansen and many others all missing time.
Los Angeles started off 16-26 and was as far as nine games out of first place in the month of May, but Roberts kept his club on the right track and they wound up finishing 92-71, good for the third-best record in the NL.
It took a Game 163 to win the division as the Dodgers hosted the Colorado Rockies in the tiebreaker game and ultimately came out victorious.
All of the finalists for the award did outstanding jobs with their respective teams as well. The Braves, Brewers and Rockies all exceeded expectations from the beginning of the season to make the playoffs.
