Manager

1. Buck Showalter, Orioles

2. Joe Girardi, Yankees

3. John Farrell, Red Sox

4. John Gibbons, Blue Jays

5. Kevin Cash, Rays

There aren’t many statistics that can be used to rank managers, except maybe this: Since 2012, the Orioles have outperformed their Baseball Prospectus PECOTA projections by a whopping 66 wins. That’s a testament to Showalter, who consistently pushes the right buttons and squeezes every last drop of talent from his club, finding a way to overcome any limitations the team might have on paper.

Girardi has had a winning season in each of his nine years at the Yankees’ helm. That’s easy enough to do when your roster has some of the most talented players money can buy, but he also had success with a relatively young squad after the Yankees’ midseason fire sale in 2016. Farrell, meanwhile, is an enigma. In his four years managing the Red Sox, his club has finished first place twice and last place twice, with nothing in between. That’s probably just the randomness of baseball and isn’t a particular reflection on Farrell.

The Blue Jays’ Gibbons has achieved plenty of on-field success with two consecutive ALCS appearances, but his teams seem a bit undisciplined and have a habit of winding up in on-field altercations. For the Rays, Cash has a 148-176 record in two seasons and hasn’t distinguished himself as a manager.

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