AL Manager of the Year Race: Who is Terry Francona’s Competition?

John Farrell – Boston Red Sox

It’s widely reported that Farrell and Francona are close friends, so it’s hard to imagine that Tito would be upset if he lost out on the award to the Red Sox head man. Farrell was a teammate of Francona’s with Cleveland during their playing days, and later served as pitching coach under him with Boston for four years.

The Red Sox finished 2015 with a 78-84 record, sitting in the cellar of the AL East, 15 games behind first place Toronto. Complicating matters, Farrell was diagnosed with Stage 1 lymphona in August, and did not manage the remainder of the season.

Both Farrell and Boston came back strong in 2016, though, as the club clinched a playoff spot on Monday just as Cleveland did, and currently have the best record in the American League. The BoSox have done so amid the media circus of David Ortiz’s final season, and with a young lineup that has developed faster than many believed it could.

The Red Sox have seen the trio of Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, and Jackie Bradley, Jr. mature into all-stars this season, and have ridden them to the most prolific scoring offense in the league by a wide margin. While Farrell alone is not responsible for their development, he certainly deserves some credit for putting them into a position to succeed.

Boston has been a juggernaut in the AL East for better than a decade now, so perhaps its place atop the division this year shouldn’t be too surprising. But Farrell has taken his team from worst to first, and that makes him arguably the chief contender Francona has for top honors among the league’s managers.