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Pat Murphy, manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, and Will Venable, skipper of the Chicago White Sox, have been selected as the 2026 Managers of the Year for the National League and American League. The announcement came on Tuesday night, with Murphy receiving the NL honor and Venable taking the AL award.
Murphy, who turned 68 on November 28, was recovering from right hip replacement surgery when he learned of his win. He had scheduled the operation after the World Series, not anticipating that his team would still be playing. "The doctor gave me some dates and I just picked a date one day, and I had no idea that it was going to coincide. I wasn't thinking in those terms," Murphy said. "I was just thinking about what we had, task at hand. I mean, I probably picked it a month ago and obviously I picked it after the World Series was done, but I didn't know we were going to be in the World Series at that time. But I thought it was a safe date to do it."
Under Murphy's guidance, the Brewers won their first World Series title, less than two weeks before the award announcement. Milwaukee also claimed the NL Central for the third straight year and led the majors with a franchise-record 103 regular-season wins. In the postseason, they swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Championship Series and defeated the Tampa Bay Rays in five games in the World Series. The Brewers, who operate in MLB's smallest market with a payroll in the bottom half of the league, have posted the best record in baseball over the past two seasons.
Murphy, who spent eight seasons on Craig Counsell's coaching staff before taking over as manager, is the first skipper from either league to win the award three years in a row. He joins an elite group of managers who have won the award three times with the same organization, including Bobby Cox, Terry Francona, and Dusty Baker. Cox is also the only other back-to-back NL winner.
Venable, a former big league outfielder, took over the White Sox in 2025 when the team was coming off a record 121 losses in 2024, the most since 1900, following 101 losses the previous season. In his debut year, Chicago went 60-102, but this season they improved to 84-78 and made the playoffs for the first time since 2021, with 19 rookies seeing playing time. "I'm really proud about the playoff appearance because it's what the players believed from day one, you know, at a time when nobody, certainly nobody outside of our walls, believed that we were a playoff team," Venable said. "There was real belief internally with our player group that they were a playoff team and beyond that, they were also willing to do the things necessary to turn that into a reality."
In the playoffs, the White Sox swept the Houston Astros in two road games in the AL Wild Card Series before taking a 2-0 lead in the AL Division Series against the Cleveland Guardians, ultimately losing in five games. Venable, who previously served on Bruce Bochy's staff with the Texas Rangers and was part of their 2023 World Series championship, is the first White Sox manager to win the award since Ozzie Guillen in 2005.
In the BBWAA balloting, Murphy received 20 of 30 first-place votes and totaled 124 points. Walt Weiss of the Atlanta Braves finished second with seven first-place votes and 86 points, while Don Mattingly of the Philadelphia Phillies was third with one first-place vote. Craig Stammen of the San Diego Padres received the remaining two first-place votes.
Venable garnered 15 of 30 first-place votes and 111 points. Kevin Cash of the Tampa Bay Rays, a two-time winner, was runner-up with 12 first-place votes and 98 points. Chad Tracy of the Boston Red Sox received three first-place votes and 47 points.
The AL and NL Cy Young Award winners and Relievers of the Year will be announced on Wednesday, with the MVP winners revealed on Thursday.
Originally reported by headtopics.