Manager of the Year: Pat Murphy Makes History, Will Venable Wins AL
Murphy became the first manager to win three straight, and Venable won after the White Sox went from 121 losses to the playoffs in two years.
Pat Murphy has now done something no manager has done since the award was created in 1983. The Milwaukee Brewers skipper won his third straight NL Manager of the Year award Tuesday night, and Will Venable of the Chicago White Sox took the AL honor after one of the biggest turnarounds in baseball history.
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced both awards. Voting is done before the postseason, so Milwaukee’s World Series title didn’t factor in.
Three years at the helm for the @Brewers, three years as the NL Manager of the Year for Pat Murphy! 🥞 pic.twitter.com/id02kGyb1P
— MLB (@MLB) November 11, 2026
Pat Murphy wins NL Manager of the Year again
Murphy has managed the Brewers for three seasons and won this award all three times. He got 20 first-place votes and 124 points, CBS Sports reported. Before his run, no Brewers manager had ever won it.
The case was easy to make. Milwaukee went 103-59, a franchise record, and led the majors with a plus-214 run differential. The Brewers then beat the Rays in five games for the first World Series title in team history.
Murphy, 67, is the 10th manager to win the award three times, Yardbarker noted, and the first to do it in consecutive seasons. He took over in November 2023 when Craig Counsell left for the Cubs.
Will Venable’s White Sox turnaround
Two years ago the White Sox lost 121 games, a major league record. Last year they lost 102. This year they went 84-78 and made the playoffs as the AL’s No. 6 seed, their first postseason trip since 2021.
No team had ever reached the postseason after losing at least 100 games in each of the previous two seasons, according to CBS. Chicago didn’t stop there. It swept the Astros in the Wild Card Series for the franchise’s first playoff series win since the 2005 World Series. Houston has since moved on from manager Joe Espada and is expected to hire Brad Ausmus as its next manager.
The vote was closer in the AL. Venable got 15 first-place votes and 111 points, edging Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash, who had 12 first-place votes. Boston’s Chad Tracy finished third, per Bleacher Report.
Venable, in just his second season, had help. Homegrown players took a step forward, and the front office added slugger Munetaka Murakami in free agency. He’s the sixth White Sox manager to win the award.
The AL Manager of the Year is Will Venable of the @WhiteSox! pic.twitter.com/uZGGjK6tj1
— MLB (@MLB) November 11, 2026
2026 Manager of the Year voting results
| League | Winner | Team | 1st-place votes | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL | Pat Murphy | Brewers | 20 | 124 |
| AL | Will Venable | White Sox | 15 | 111 |
What’s next in MLB awards week
The Executive of the Year is announced Wednesday at the GM meetings in Las Vegas, the same meetings where the market’s top free agent is drawing attention. Tarik Skubal has a meeting set with the Mets next week, with the Dodgers and Padres also on his list.
Cam Schlittler and Jacob Misiorowski then won the Cy Young Awards unanimously Wednesday night. Here’s how the Cy Young winners pulled it off. Awards week wraps up Thursday with the MVP announcements at 7 p.m. ET on MLB Network. Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez and Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong are the heavy favorites, MLB.com reported, which would make it the first year since 2020 that neither Aaron Judge nor Shohei Ohtani wins.
For more coverage, see our MLB news page.
Sources: CBS Sports, Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated, Yardbarker, BVM Sports, MLB.com, MLB
