Buck Showalter has been named National League Manager of the Year, Major League Baseball announced on Tuesday night.
The 66-year-old led the Mets to their first postseason appearance in six years in what was his first season managing the club after he had been out of baseball since the end of 2018.
As one of the key changes in the organization’s leadership structure which also included the hiring of GM Billy Eppler, Showalter navigated a Mets team that improved their win total by 24 games compared to their roster from a squad that won 77 games in 2021, going 101-61 this season.
The likes of Max Scherzer, Starling Marte, and Chris Bassitt were brought in for Showalter’s maiden voyage with the Mets, but the veteran skipper — always quick to deflect praise on himself — admitted that a complete overhaul wasn’t needed to get the franchise back on track.
“You have a perception of what’s needed or what needs to be brought and you get there and it’s a little bit different,” Showalter said back in September. “One of the biggest mistakes people make is when they come in these situations is think that everything is bad. What a mistake. It’s awful for morale.
“There were a lot of great things in place when I got here. A lot of it was not trying to mess it up.”
The 101 wins rank second-most in a regular season in franchise history. It was also the most wins that Showalter posted in a season in his 21 seasons as an MLB manager, eclipsing the 100 victories he accrued in 1999 with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
