Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash won the AL Manager of the Year award on Tuesday night, and Miami’s Don Mattingly took home the NL honour.
Long regarded as one of baseball’s bright young minds, Cash guided Tampa Bay to an AL-best 40-20 record during the pandemic-shortened season. But he was roundly criticized for pulling ace left-hander Blake Snell in the sixth inning of the decisive Game 6 in the World Series against the champion Dodgers.
Voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America concluded before the beginning of the playoffs. Rick Renteria, who was let go by the White Sox after the team made the post-season for the first time since 2008, finished second, followed by Toronto’s Charlie Montoyo.
Cash, who turns 43 on Dec. 6, hit .183 with 12 homers and 58 RBIs in 246 major league games as a catcher for five teams, including Tampa Bay. After his playing career ended, he worked as an advance scout for Texas and Toronto before joining Terry Francona’s staff in Cleveland as the bullpen coach.
The Tampa, Florida, native and Florida State alum was hired as Tampa Bay manager the day before his 37th birthday. He finished third in balloting for AL Manager of the Year in each of the past two seasons. He is the franchise’s first winner of the award since Joe Maddon in 2011.
Cash is 454-416 in six years as manager of the Rays.
Tampa Bay won the AL East this year for the first time since Cash took over. The Rays leaned heavily on their bullpen throughout the pandemic-shortened season, with 12 different pitchers recording at least one save — matching the major league record.
So the move to get Snell was in line with what made the Rays so successful this year, but it played a key role in the Dodgers rallying for a title-clinching 3-1 victory. Cash has insisted if he faced the same situation again, he would trust his bullpen to close it out.
