Will Venable won the 2026 American League Manager of the Year award after the Chicago White Sox improved from 60–102 to 84–78 and earned a wild-card berth. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced the result on November 10.
How the vote broke down
Venable received 15 of the 30 first-place votes and finished with 111 points. Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash finished second with 98 points and 12 first-place votes. Boston’s Chad Tracy took third with 47 points.
Venable’s margin over Cash was 13 points, even though the pair were separated by only three first-place votes. The ballots also awarded points for second and third place, so the ranking reflects support across the ballot rather than just the number of writers who put each manager first.
The turnaround that counted
Chicago added 24 wins and finished second in the AL Central. The BBWAA completed voting before the playoffs. The wild-card berth belongs in the story of Chicago’s regular-season improvement; what happened after qualification could not have changed the vote.
Source: BBWAA voting results. Prepared with AI assistance and editorial review.
Will Venable (archive photo). Photo: Ian D’Andrea / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0. Resized and compressed.
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