Cleveland Indians: Top 5 managers in team history

Ready for an offseason debate? Here are the five best managers in Cleveland Indians’ history.

Despite just two World Series championships, it’s hard to find a franchise with more history than the Cleveland Indians.

From their early days as the Grand Rapids Rustlers to their name change to the Cleveland Indians in 1915, the franchise just concluded their 120th season in team history.

Through the years, 46 different men have managed the team. Two have won World Series, four have won American League pennants, six have taken the club to the postseason and one was named a Hall of Famer as a skipper rather than player.

While no Indians manager has ever spent a decade or more as the teams manager, regardless, there are still five skippers that stand out as the best in franchise history.

Ready for a debate? Here are our top five managers in Cleveland Indians’ history.

Resume

• 570-324 record
• 1954 American League Champion
• Four 90+ win seasons
• Five second place finishes
• No sub .500 seasons
• Fifth all-time on Indians managerial win list
• .617 win percentage
• Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame Inductee
• National Baseball Hall of Fame Inductee

The only man in Indians history to be inducted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his role as a manager is Al Lopez.

Lopez can be best described as a winner. His .617 win percentage ranks as the best in franchise history as he never posted a sub .500 season as Indians manager.

In his six-year stint as Indians skipper, Lopez led the Tribe to four wins of at least 90 wins and in 1954 guided the team to a 113-43 record, which allowed them to finally beat out the New York Yankees for the AL Pennant.

While the Indians would suffer a sweep in the World Series in a series best known for Giants outfielders Willie Mays’ iconic catch, Lopez cemented himself in Indians history as one of just four skippers to lead the team to a World Series.

After departing Cleveland, he went onto spend two stints managing the Chicago White Sox (1957-65, 1968-69) where he led the White Sox to the 1959 World Series.

He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977 and was named the American League’s honorary team captain in the 1990 MLB All-Star Game at Wrigley Field.

Resume

• 638-494 record
• 2016 American League Champion
• 3-time AL Central Champion
• Two AL Wild Card Berths
• 22-game winning streak (2017)
• No sub .500 seasons
• Two-time AL Manager of the Year
• Third all-time on Indians managerial win list

There are few managers in Indians history that have had more success than Cleveland’s current skipper Terry Francona.

Since arriving in Cleveland in 2013, the Indians have never finished below the .500 mark, have won three American League Central titles, clinched two Wild Card berths and came within one win of winning the 2016 World Series.

In 2016, Francona led an Indians team that had missed the postseason in both 2014 and 2015 and had not won an AL Central title since 2007 when Eric Wedge was at the helm all the way to the World Series where the Tribe jumped out to a 3-1 series lead before eventually losing to the Chicago Cubs in seven games.

Francona’s 2017 club became the first Indians team since 1995 to win 100 or more games (100) and broke the American Leauge’s regular season winning streak record as they rattled off 22 straight wins late in the season.

In 2021 he will enter his eighth year as Cleveland’s skipper in what many speculate will be his final year in baseball as he battles health issues that forced him to miss 48 games in 2020.

Resume

• 617-520 record
• Player Manager
• 1920 World Series Champion
• 94-60 1921 season
• Fourth all-time on Indians managerial win list

Not only was Tris Speaker the Cleveland Indians best player during the 1920 World Series champion season, but he was also the manager.

Speaker led the Indians to their first-ever championship by leading the 1920 club to a 98-56 regular season and seven-game World Series win over the Brooklyn Robins. In addition to his work in the dugout, he also hit a team-high .388 with eight home runs and 107 RBI’s.

As a manager, Speaker had to navigate the 1920 Indians through a tragedy as shortstop Ray Chapman was killed during a regular season game against the New York Yankees after being hit the head by a spitball pitch from Carl Mays at the Polo Grounds.

In addition to his effort in 1920, Speaker led the Indians to a 94-60 1921 season and finished his time as Indians manager with 617 wins, which ranks fourth all-time in franchise history.

He went onto finish his career as a player with the Washington Senators in 1927 and Philadelphia Athletics in 1928. Speaker was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame Inductee as a player in 1937.

Resume

• 721-591 record
• Two-Time American League Champion
• Five-Time American League Central Champion
• 27-25 Playoff Record
• Second all-time on Indians managerial win list

While he did not win a World Series, no manger in Cleveland Indians’ history was better than Mike Hargrove.

Hargrove took over midway through the 1991 season in which Cleveland finished an embarrassing 57-105. From there, the team began to improve. The Indians won 76 games in both 1992 and 1993 and where in the thick of the postseason race at 66-47 when the 1994 season was cut short due to the infamous strike.

In 1995, Hargrove led the Indians to a 100-44 season to clinch the American League Central. They swept the Boston Red Sox in the first-ever ALDS and beat the Seattle Mariners in a six-game ALCS to advance to the World Series for the first time since 1948. They’d lose the series in six games to the Atlanta Braves but continued their success the next four years.

The Indians won the AL Central in 1996 but were knocked out by the Baltimore Orioles in the ALDS.

In 1997, Cleveland again won the division and defeated the Yankees in the ALDS and in the ALCS, got their revenge on the Orioles to get back to the World Series. There, the Indians took the Florida Marlins to Game 7 where they’d lose in heartbreaking fashion as Edgar Renteria hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the 11th.

Cleveland would win the division in both 1998, where after defeating the Red Sox in the ALDS they fell in six-games to a 114-win Yankees team in the ALCS and in 1999 where Boston defeated them in the ALDS.

After the season 1999 season, Hargrove was shockingly let go by general manager John Hart. He went onto manage the Orioles from 2000-02 and the Mariners from 2005-07.