The Cleveland Guardians have one of the best managers in baseball in Stephen Vogt. He has led his team to the playoffs twice and made history while winning the AL Central for a second year in a row.
He was named AL Manager of the Year again, becoming the first to ever win that award in each of his first two seasons. The former big league catcher has shown the ability to control a game from the dugout while also motivating his players in the locker room.
The 41-year-old recently revealed the key to his managerial success in an interview with MLB.com.
“I think the people right around my age or that era of player, we played through a very unique time where we broke into the big leagues and came up through the Minor Leagues with absolutely zero information,” Vogt said. “And then, during our big league careers, we had every piece of information thrown at us, and we were expected to go use that on the field. And so I think we were raised in an old-school world, but then we played through the transition. So now I feel like we have a very good understanding of how to apply information, while not losing sight of maybe the gut feel. And so I think it’s a really unique time period from like 2008 to 2020 that we learned all of that.”
Vogt played 10 MLB seasons with six different teams from 2012 to 2022. He immediately transitioned into coaching, joining the Seattle Mariners’ staff for the 2023 season.
Early in that next offseason, the Guardians hired him to be their manager. In 2024, they won the division and made it all the way to the ALCS before losing to the New York Yankees.
His skills were truly put to the test last season. The Guardians had a woeful month of June and were 15.5 games back in the division at one point.
Vogt made the unorthodox move to go to a six-man starting rotation, and even though the Guardians still trailed by 11 games in September, they were able to overtake the Detroit Tigers in the final days of the season. It was the largest deficit ever overcome to win an MLB division.
His ability to mix his experience as a former player with the modern approach to the game has clearly served him and the Guardians well, and a contract extension to keep that relationship going for years to come may be on the horizon.
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