Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers is Sporting News’ 2016 National League Manager of the Year, as selected by his fellow NL skippers. SN has given Manager of the Year awards since 1936.
Roberts, in his first year as a manager, guided the Dodgers to the NL West title despite a slew of injuries to key players.
Dusty Baker of the Washington Nationals and Joe Maddon of the Chicago Cubs tied for the No. 2 spot in the NL voting, which was conducted before the postseason began.
Roberts replaced Don Mattingly last offseason, becoming the first African-American manager in the Dodgers’ long history. Los Angeles won 91 games despite placing 28 different players on the disabled list, more than any team in the past 30 seasons.
As a result of all the injuries, Roberts made an MLB-record 606 pitching changes in the regular season and used a franchise-record 55 different players.
Roberts joins an impressive duo of Dodger managers to win the SN award: Hall of Famers Leo Durocher (1939) and Walt Alston (1955, 1959, 1963).
VOTING RESULTS
National League (voting by NL managers)
- Dave Roberts, Los Angeles Dodgers-7
2t. Dusty Baker, Washington Nationals-3
2t. Joe Maddon, Chicago Cubs-3
- Terry Collins, New York Mets-1
