Joe Maddon And Jeff Banister Named Managers Of The Year

Joe Maddon and Jeff Banister may be at different points in their careers, but they can both be called one of baseball’s best managers after the Baseball Writers’ Association of America named them the 2015 American League and National League Managers of the Year.

Maddon, who led the Chicago Cubs to the National League Championship Series, won the award previously as the manager of the Tampa Bay Rays. While he couldn’t help the Cubs break their infamous championship drought, he hopes to use this season as a springboard for the future.

“The spotlight is shining from Wrigley Field, and you just have to believe that’s going to attract other people who want to be there,” Maddon explained. “Obviously, a huge attraction is the fact we have not won a World Series in over 100 years. I think there’s a lot of competitive Major League players who would like to be a member of the first group that did that.”

Unsurprisingly, the manager shifted the praise away from himself towards the players. “At the end of the day,” Maddon said, “this is a players’ game. To be a steward of this wonderful group of young players, I feel very fortunate.”

Banister, on the other hand, was in his first season as a professional manager after four season as a the Pirates’ bench coach. He guided the Rangers, who were without starter Yu Darvish since March in a worst-to first turnaround that culminated in a division title. Similarly to Maddon, Banister directed the spotlight away from himself. “It means a group of players showed up every day, beat some odds, were resilient, showed some grit, learned to play together and for each other on a nightly basis,” he said of the award. “I was most proud of that.”