As MLB’s awards season continues, Tuesday saw a pair of managers recognized as the top of their respective leagues.

White Sox manager Will Venable was named the American League Manager of the Year after spearheading a remarkable turnaround in Chicago. Venable’s first season at the helm of the White Sox wasn’t much to write home about. He inherited a truly lackluster team that had won just 41 games the season prior and led them to a 60-win season. Despite losing 102 games, the team still improved by 19 wins year over year.

In 2026, Venable’s second season in charge, the White Sox were expected to be at the bottom of the AL Central yet again. Instead, he guided the team to an 84-win season and a wild-card berth in the American League. That marked a 24-win improvement for Chicago, which became the first team in MLB history to qualify for the postseason after three consecutive 100-loss seasons, and even won its first playoff series since 2005. The Sox defeated the Astros in the wild-card series before flaming out in a hard-fought, five-game ALDS showdown against the rival Guardians.

Venable received 15 first-place votes, 11 second-place votes and three third-place votes, giving him a total of 111 points. That was enough to secure the award ahead of Rays manager Kevin Cash, who finished with 12 first-place votes and 98 points. The only other manager to receive a first-place vote was Red Sox interim skipper Chad Tracy, who finished with a total of 47 points. Other managers receiving votes included the Guardians’ Stephen Vogt, Yankees’ Aaron Boone and Astros’ Joe Espada, who was dismissed after Houston lost to the White Sox in the playoffs.

As for the National League, Brewers skipper Pat Murphy became the first person to be named Manager of the Year for the third consecutive season since the award was introduced in 1983. The 67-year-old led Milwaukee to a franchise-record 103 wins and the best record in MLB. The Brewers dominated in the postseason, too, dropping just two games en route to the franchise’s first World Series title.

Murphy now finds himself on the brink of even more history, too, as he is now just one win away from tying Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Buck Showalter for the most Manager of the Year awards of all time.

Murphy owns a 293–193 record as Milwaukee’s manager, and the team has improved every year under his tutelage. In his first campaign at the helm, the Brewers won 93 games, followed by 97 in ‘25 and then 103 in ‘26. And let’s be clear––this is Murphy’s team. When he took up the manager role after Craig Counsell departed for the Cubs, Murphy made clear to the organization that he wanted to implement a specific style of baseball the team would play, which we’ve seen through their small ball tactics and low-budget roster, and he wanted a say in the personnel that would be on the roster. The front office’s decision to name Murphy manager and make good on those agreements led to the team’s sustained success under his leadership.

From a voting perspective, Murphy ran away with the award. He received 20 of the 30 first-place votes and received a total of 124 points. Braves manager Walt Weiss placed second after receiving seven first-place votes and 86 points. The Phillies’ Don Mattingly and Padres’ Craig Stammen also received first-place votes and had 25 and 24 points, respectively. The remaining three managers to receive any votes were the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts, Cubs’ Craig Counsell and Pirates’ Don Kelly. Kelly was the only manager of a non-postseason team that received a single vote across both the American League and National League.