Oakland Athletics’ Bob Melvin Finalist For American League Manager of the Year

Sep 22, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics manager Bob Melvin (6) watches the game from the dugout during the first inning against the Minnesota Twins at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Bob Stanton-USA TODAY Sports

Oakland Athletics manager Bob Melvin was one of the finalists named Tuesday for the American League Manager of the Year Award.

Melvin is the reigning AL Manager of the Year, having won the award in 2012, and was also the National League’s Manager of the Year in 2007 when he piloted the Arizona Diamondbacks to a division title.

Major League Baseball and the Baseball Writers Association of America announced the finalists on Tuesday in advance of the award winners being named beginning Monday (h/t CBSSports.com).

Three finalists were named in each league for the four major BBWAA awards—Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year, Cy Young Award and Most Valuable Player.

In addition to Melvin, the other finalists for Manager of the Year in the AL were John Farrell of the world champion Boston Red Sox and Terry Francona of the Cleveland Indians. Voting was conducted at the end of the regular season.

The A’s were 96-66 this season, a two-game improvement over 2012, and won the AL West by 5.5 games over the Texas Rangers. As was the case in 2012, the A’s lost a decisive fifth game at O.co Coliseum to the Detroit Tigers in the AL Division Series.

Farrell oversaw a resurrection of the Red Sox from a 69-93 last-place finisher to a team that was 97-65 and won the AL East by 5.5 games over the Tampa Bay Rays. Francona took the Indians to the postseason for the first time since 2007, leading Cleveland to a 24-game improvement over 2012. The Indians were 68-94 in 2012, but were one of the AL wild-card qualifiers in 2013 with a 92-70 record.

The Manager of the Year winners will be announced on Tuesday. The finalists in the National League include Fredi Gonzalez of the Atlanta Braves, Clint Hurdle of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Don Mattingly of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Other award finalists include:

Rookie of the Year (to be announced Monday)

• AL: Chris Archer (Tampa Bay Rays), Jose Iglesias (Boston Red Sox/Detroit Tigers), Wil Myers (Tampa Bay Rays)
• NL: Jose Fernandez (Miami Marlins), Shelby Miller (St. Louis Cardinals), Yasiel Puig (Los Angeles Dodgers)

Cy Young Award (to be announced Wednesday)

• AL: Yu Darvish (Texas Rangers), Hisashi Iwakuma (Seattle Mariners), Max Scherzer (Detroit Tigers)
• NL: Jose Fernandez (Miami Marlins), Clayton Kershaw (Los Angeles Dodgers), Adam Wainwright (St. Louis Cardinals)

Most Valuable Player (to be announced Thursday)

• AL: Miguel Cabrera (Detroit Tigers), Chris Davis (Baltimore Orioles), Mike Trout (Los Angeles Angels)
• NL: Paul Goldschmidt (Arizona Diamondbacks), Andrew McCutchen (Pittsburgh Pirates), Yadier Molina (St. Louis Cardinals)

A surprising omission would appear to be Oakland right-hander Bartolo Colon from the list of Cy Young finalists after Colon was 18-6 with a 2.65 ERA for the A’s this season.