Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez got some first-place votes after guiding the Braves to their first division title since 2005, but Clint Hurdle was a runaway winner of the National League Manager of the Year award Tuesday after his Pirates captured a wild-card playoff berth in their first winning season in 21 years.
Cleveland’s Terry Francona won the American League Manager of the Year award in his first season with the Indians, finishing ahead of Boston’s John Farrell and Oakland’s Bob Melvin.
Gonzalez finished third in the NL balloting for the award from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, behind Hurdle and the Dodgers’ Don Mattingly. The Pirates went 94-68 and Hurdle got 25 of 30 first-place votes and five second-place votes for 140 points. Mattingly had two first-place votes and 68 points, and Gonzalez had the other three first-place votes and 43 points.
The Braves have improved in each of the Gonzalez’s three seasons as manager, from 89 wins in 2011 to 94 wins and a wild-card berth in 2012, and 96 wins and the NL East title in 2013. They lost to the Dodgers 3-1 in the division series.
Balloting for BBWAA awards is conducted before the postseason.
“We had a real nice year,” Braves general manager Frank Wren said. “Winning the division and putting up with all the injuries that we were kind of able to overcome. There’s always a sting at the end of the year when you’re not the last team standing. We had a lot of sting at the end of the year. But I think that now when you get a chance to get away from it for a month and kind of reflect back and look at the season, it was a good year.”
Gonzalez’s first-place votes came from USA Today’s Paul White, the Oakland Tribune’s Monte Pool, and El Nuevo Herald’s Jorge Ebro.
Wren finished fourth in balloting for Sporting News’ Executive of the Year award, receiving three votes. Red Sox GM Ben Cherington won with 15 votes from the panel of 31 executives. Pirates GM Neal Huntington was runner-up with nine votes, and Royals GM Dayton Moore was third with four.
“You appreciate that your peers feel like you did a good job,” Wren said.
Coordinator gets big-league job: For the second time in as many weeks, a Braves minor league coordinator is leaving for a major league job.
Hitting coordinator Don Long was expected to be announced as the Cincinnati’s new hitting coach, two weeks after Braves minor league pitching coordinator Dave Wallace was hired as Baltimore pitching coach. The Orioles also hired Braves special assistant Dom Chiti as bullpen coach.
“It’s a credit to our organization that we have the kind of people that other organizations are looking at to improve their major league clubs,” Wren said. “It’s a credit to our guys, and it’s something we’re proud of, but at the same time we feel like it’s really important to have great instruction at the minor league level. So now the challenge is to hire new people that can continue to help us develop players.”
Wren said Bruce Manno, assistant GM and player-development director, was in the process of asking permission from other clubs to interview potential replacements for the two coordinator positions.
Chiti served as a top scout while helping Wallace develop young pitchers in the Braves’ minor league system. Wren said Chiti was the person most responsible for getting Julio Teheran back on track during the 2012 season at Triple-A Gwinnett.
“Losing Dave and Dom Chiti are two big losses; now we’re also losing another one,” Wren said Tuesday, declining to say which team hired Long because the hiring had not been announced. “(Long) is not leaving because he wants to leave; he got a major league job, and a major league pension is a huge driving force for those guys.”
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