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In baseball, the Manager of the Year award has a reputation for rewarding surprise. It goes to the skipper whose team blew past expectations, and almost nobody blew past expectations in 2026 the way Will Venable's Chicago White Sox did. On Tuesday night, the Baseball Writers' Association of America named Venable the American League Manager of the Year. That caps a turnaround that would have seemed far-fetched as recently as the summer of 2024.
Back then, the White Sox were losing at a historic pace. They finished that season 41-121, the most losses by any team in baseball's modern era, which began in 1900. Venable inherited the wreckage. His first year in charge, 2025, brought real progress but another 100-loss campaign: 60-102. This season, Chicago went 84-78, a 24-win jump, and earned the American League's sixth and final playoff seed.
A Narrow Vote for a Historic Season
The balloting was closer than the storyline might suggest. Venable collected 15 of the 30 first-place votes, along with 11 seconds and three thirds, for 111 points. Tampa Bay's Kevin Cash, whose Rays won 98 games, the best record in the league, and took the AL East a year after finishing fourth, was close behind with 12 first-place votes and 98 points.
Boston's Chad Tracy finished third with 47 points and the only other three first-place votes. Tracy took over after the Red Sox fired Alex Cora following a 10-17 start, then went 77-58 and steered the club to the second AL Wild Card. Cleveland's Stephen Vogt, who won the award in each of the previous two seasons, placed fourth. Aaron Boone of the Yankees and Joe Espada of the Astros also got votes. Houston dismissed Espada after the Astros were knocked out of the playoffs by, of all teams, Chicago.
Venable becomes the sixth White Sox manager to win the honor. The others are Tony La Russa (1983), Jeff Torborg (1990), Gene Lamont (1993), Jerry Manuel (2000) and Ozzie Guillén (2005).
How the White Sox Did It
The numbers explain why voters were won over. With a 101-loss season in 2023, Chicago had lost at least 100 games three years running. No team in Major League history had ever followed a run like that with a postseason berth. The White Sox did, and then they won a playoff series. They beat the Astros in the Wild Card round for the franchise's first postseason series victory since its 2005 championship, before losing a five-game Division Series to the Guardians.
It wasn't a polished machine. According to MLB Trade Rumors, Chicago fielded one of the youngest lineups in the sport. Only Washington, St. Louis and Miami had younger hitters on average. The group struck out a lot but also did damage, ranking fifth in the majors in both home runs and runs scored. The White Sox even held the AL Central lead for a stretch before Cleveland overtook them in September.
The pitching staff is where Venable's management stood out. By season's end, Sean Burke and Anthony Kay were the only reliable starters. Chicago's rotation threw just 674 2/3 innings, the fewest in the majors, and the club leaned on openers and multi-inning relievers to piece games together. Keeping a young, thin roster competitive for 162 games is the kind of daily juggling voters tend to notice.
Murphy's Three-Peat in the National League
If Venable's award was the story of the night, Pat Murphy's was the history. The Milwaukee Brewers manager won the National League award for the third consecutive season. Nobody had done that since the award began in 1983.
This time the vote wasn't close. Murphy took 20 of 30 first-place votes and 124 points, ahead of Atlanta's Walt Weiss (seven first-place votes, 86 points). Philadelphia's Don Mattingly (25 points) and San Diego's Craig Stammen (24) each also received first-place votes. Dave Roberts of the Dodgers, Craig Counsell of the Cubs and Don Kelly of the Pirates rounded out the ballot. According to Sports Illustrated, Kelly was the only manager of a non-playoff team to receive a vote in either league.
The case for Murphy was overwhelming. The Brewers went a franchise-record 103-59, the best mark in baseball, then dropped only two postseason games on the way to the first World Series title in club history. Murphy, 67, took over when Counsell left for Chicago's North Side, and his win totals have climbed every year since: 93, then 97, then 103. Sports Illustrated summed up his small-ball, low-payroll approach in four words: "this is Murphy's team."
The week hasn't been entirely smooth for him. Murphy has publicly said he regrets a celebratory jab at the Yankees that went viral after the World Series. Several outlets reported that he called New York general manager Brian Cashman to explain the remark.
What This Means for You
For fans, the White Sox story is a reminder that rebuilds don't always take a decade. Chicago went from historically bad to playoff winner in two seasons by betting on young hitters and a creative approach to the pitching staff. That template will be studied by every franchise currently stuck at the bottom of the standings. And if you're a Sox fan who stuck it out through 2024, this award is as much a validation of your patience as of Venable's work.
For the wider sport, the two awards highlight a theme of 2026: smaller-budget clubs outmanaging bigger ones. Milwaukee won a title on a modest payroll, Tampa Bay won the AL East, and Chicago crashed the postseason with one of the league's youngest rosters. As the hot-stove season heats up, expect front offices to talk less about spending and more about development and in-game management.
The Bigger Picture
The Manager of the Year award will always invite debate. Should it go to the best manager or to the biggest surprise? Venable's narrow win over Cash, whose Rays had the league's best record, fits that argument neatly. But it's hard to argue with the history. No manager had ever taken a team out of three straight 100-loss seasons and into October.
The harder part comes next. In 2027, the White Sox will no longer be a surprise. Venable will need his young core to keep developing and his front office to find the starting pitching he made do without this year. For one November night, though, the franchise that lost 121 games two summers ago can claim the best managing job in the American League.
