In a rarity, the St. Louis Cardinals‘ Mike Shildt was named NL Manager of the Year on Tuesday, despite his receiving fewer first-place votes than Milwaukee‘s Craig Counsell.
Shildt had 10 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to Counsell’s 13, but Shildt placed second on 14 ballots compared to just six for Counsell. Shildt, whose named appeared on 27 ballots, ended with 95 points, topping the 88 for Counsell, who was named on 24 ballots. Atlanta‘s Brian Snitker, who won the award last season, finished a distant third.
Shildt teared up upon learning that he had won, saying he was already in an emotional place after his mother died Wednesday.
At the All-Star break, the Cardinals stood 44-44 and in danger of missing the playoffs for a fourth straight season — unthinkable for a franchise for which three playoff-less seasons in a row was already viewed as a disaster. The Cardinals turned it around, going 47-27 in the second half and pulling ahead of the Brewers and Cubs to win the NL Central with a 91-71 record. That second-half surge made the difference for Shildt.
The second-half run began immediately, with 12 wins in their first 15 games after the break, including a four-game sweep at Pittsburgh. They hosted the Cubs in late July with the teams tied for first and took two of three.
They beat the Brewers in four of six games in August, but the biggest series of the season was a four-game weekend series Sept. 19-22 at Wrigley Field. The Cardinals began the series three games up on the Cubs and Brewers and won all four games — all by one run, their first four-game sweep at Wrigley since 1921 and the first four-game sweep on the road with all wins by one run by any team since 1919.
In his first full season as Cardinals manager, Shildt — the first manager of the year who never played professional baseball — managed around a mediocre offense that ranked 10th in the NL in runs scored. The Cardinals went from last to first in fewest errors committed and led the NL in stolen bases. Jack Flaherty’s huge second half keyed the run, and the Cardinals had the second-best bullpen ERA in the NL at 3.82.
The Dodgers’ Dave Roberts finished fourth in the award voting, and Nationals manager Dave Martinez was fifth. Washington won the World Series, but voting concluded before the postseason began.
The Cardinals rewarded Shildt last week with a three-year contract extension. He began his career in the Cardinals organization in 2004 as an area scout and short-season coach before becoming manager of short-season Johnson City in 2009. He later moved up to become manager at Double-A and Triple-A before joining the big league club in 2017 as quality control coach and then third-base coach.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.