O’s Hyde, Marlins’ Schumaker voted top skippers
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David Schoenfield, ESPN Senior Writer
The Baltimore Orioles‘ Brandon Hyde was named the American League Manager of the Year on Tuesday, as the Miami Marlins‘ Skip Schumaker won the National League award.
Under Hyde, the Orioles orchestrated one of the most impressive two-season turnarounds in MLB history. In 2021, they were — once again — the worst team in the majors. They had finished 52-110, the third time in four seasons they had lost at least 108 games, and the second time they had done so under Hyde. The rebuild was trudging along very slowly, and winning seasons still appeared to be a distant dream.
Then, in 2022, the Orioles improved to 83-79. Most experts predicted some regression in 2023, believing the Orioles had put together a fluke season. Instead, they won 101 games to finish with the best record in the AL, won the AL East title for the first time since 2014 and won 100 games for the first time since 1980.
“I’m super proud of our organization and how far we’ve come, exceeding expectations the last two years,” Hyde said. “We had a great season this year. It’s been quite a journey and a long road, but I’m super happy to be a Baltimore Oriole and how far we’ve come in five years.”
Hyde outpointed Bruce Bochy of the Texas Rangers and Kevin Cash of the Tampa Bay Rays to capture the award, picking up 27 of the 30 first-place votes. Voting factors in only regular-season results.
In the NL, Schumaker, a first-year manager, took top honors after the Marlins reached the postseason for the first time in a full season since 2003. In a split vote that saw six managers receive first-place votes, Schumaker tied with Brian Snitker of the Atlanta Braves with eight first-place votes while Craig Counsell, now the Chicago Cubs‘ manager, finished second overall for his work with the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Marlins squeaked into the playoffs as a wild-card team in the final days of the regular season, finishing 84-78 thanks to an impressive 33-14 record in one-run games. That record allowed the Marlins to make the postseason despite a minus-57 run differential — the worst ever for a playoff team. Schumaker is the fourth Marlins manger to win the annual award after Jack McKeon in 2003, Joe Girardi in 2006 and Don Mattingly in 2020.
“I think we set a new standard in that clubhouse and now it’s time to protect the standard,” Schumaker said. “I told that to the guys after losing the series to a really good Phillies team and I just felt like the culture kind of changed. They know what winning looked like. They know what to expect now. After you get a taste of that postseason, you just want to get back there any way you can, and that’s the next step for our organization.”
The Orioles’ rebuild began in 2019 with the hiring of Mike Elias from the Houston Astros as general manager. He brought in Hyde, who had been the bench coach under Joe Maddon with the Cubs after previously serving as a minor league manager and bench coach with the Marlins. With a terrible major league roster, a farm system rated among the worst in the game at the time and the difficulties of navigating the AL East, Elias and Hyde knew the path to a division title wasn’t going to be easy.
“I don’t think you go into a season expecting to win 101 games,” Hyde said. “I was hoping we would build off last year. I was really encouraged by the second half we had last year. I felt like if we stayed healthy and with some young players coming into their own … that if we built off last year’s momentum, we could be better than last year.”
Indeed, the Orioles proved the critics wrong, improving by 18 games this season — through good defense, superb baserunning, an underrated offense and a great 1-2 punch in the bullpen (at least until closer Felix Bautista got injured) — and winning the division.
“We were dreaming of that when we started the rebuild,” Elias said at his end-of-season news conference. “It seemed impossible. You know, the people here pulled it together and I think it’s just a historic achievement. This group of players, regardless of where else they go in their careers and their lives, I hope the city of Baltimore remembers this group for kind of reminding the world this is Baltimore and we do baseball here.”
In those early years under Hyde, the Orioles focused on creating the right culture while hoping the wins would eventually follow once the farm system started producing better players, which it has. Adley Rutschman came up in 2022, Gunnar Henderson just won the AL Rookie of the Year Award, Kyle Bradish developed into a top starter this past season and rookie pitcher Grayson Rodriguez also looks like a potential rotation anchor.
With a young team and presumably flexibility to grow the payroll, the Orioles could be players in the free-agent market in the offseason. Hyde hopes some of those free agents understand what’s going on in Baltimore with a young, exciting team.
“People are going to see that they enjoyed playing here and that this is a fun team to be on, and we’re going to win,” Hyde said at the end of the season. “I would expect that we’re going to possibly acquire veteran players. That’s an important part of the clubhouse.”
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Kristen Shilton
TORONTO — The Maple Leafs‘ offense was missing in action again in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Wednesday night, as a 6-1 loss to the Florida Panthers now has Toronto facing playoff elimination.
The Leafs, who were shut out 2-0 in Game 4, didn’t score until the final two minutes of Game 5 and now trail 3-2 in the best-of-seven series after holding a 2-0 lead.
Toronto’s top skaters were, again, invisible. Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander have yet to record a goal in the second round. And now the Leafs will have to log consecutive wins to extend their postseason.
“I think everybody’s got to look in the mirror,” Matthews said. “Myself included. Everybody wants to be better. Everybody wants to win.”
Matthews has just three goals in the Leafs’ last 21 games. He was third on the team in regular-season scoring, with 33 goals in 67 games.
It wasn’t just Matthews, though. Toronto was lifeless from the start of Game 5 and never seemed to challenge Florida at either end of the ice.
The Panthers heavily outplayed the Leafs throughout the first period, and it was defenseman Aaron Ekblad who finally beat goaltender Joseph Woll to give Florida a 1-0 lead through 20 minutes.
While Woll kept Toronto in a tight matchup, it was clear already the Leafs were struggling to keep up with the Panthers.
“We played slow,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “They were fast, they were on us, they were hungrier. That’s the first period, and that sets the tone for the game. It is hard to explain it. We all need to be better, me included. You can’t start the game that way, that’s a big thing for me.”
The Panthers opened the floodgates in the second period, helped by a landslide of Leafs mistakes. Dmitry Kulikov extended Florida’s lead with a goal tipped in by Leafs forward Scott Laughton‘s stick. Then Marner’s attempt to execute a spinning backhand pass in his own zone led to a turnover in the neutral zone that was picked up by Jesper Boqvist and snapped past Woll to give Florida a 3-0 lead midway through the second frame.
Boqvist entered the lineup in Game 5 to replace the injured Evan Rodrigues, who left Sunday’s Game 4 following a hit from Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
Niko Mikkola made it 4-0 before the end of the period, giving three Florida defensemen goals on the night.
By the time A.J. Greer scored Florida’s fifth goal — the first playoff make of his career — in the third period, it was time for Toronto to make a change in net, with Woll being replaced by Matt Murray.
Frustrated fans, who had booed the Leafs off their own ice to end the second period, began throwing items onto the sheet, including a Matthews jersey. People were exiting in droves by early in the third period.
“We didn’t give them much reason to stick around,” Matthews said.
Woll finished the game with five goals on 25 shots for an .800 save percentage.
Florida wasn’t done after Woll’s departure, though, with Sam Bennett adding a power play goal to give the Panthers a 6-0 lead halfway through the third period.
Toronto’s top skaters have had no response for Florida’s suffocating pressure — or Sergei Bobrovsky‘s impressive play.
Since giving up 13 goals to Toronto through the series’ first three games, Bobrovsky has been airtight in denying the Leafs any opportunity to score.
Berube tried making adjustments. He inserted David Kampf and Nicholas Robertson into the lineup for Game 5 to try and generate a spark, and moved Max Pacioretty to the top line during the game in an effort to generate some momentum. Nothing seemed to help.
Toronto hadn’t registered a goal since 10:56 of the third period of Game 3 until Robertson put one past Bobrovsky with 90 seconds left Wednesday night. It was all too little, too late.
“Tonight, it wasn’t a good game for anybody,” Berube said. “Anybody. All of us. it was not a good game.”
Leafs defenseman Chris Tanev was quick to shoulder the burden of Toronto’s defeat, echoing a refrain heard around the locker room from players determined not to let this be the penultimate game of their season.
“I’ll take responsibility,” Tanev said. “I need to be better. If I’m a minus player [at minus-2 in Game 5], we’re probably not going to win the game. It’s on me. I’ll take responsibility for the game.”
Game 6 is Friday in Florida.
LAS VEGAS — Kasperi Kapanen scored on a scramble in front of the net at 7:14 of overtime, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vegas Golden Knights 1-0 in Game 5 on Wednesday night to advance to the Western Conference finals for the second year in a row.
The Oilers, who last season made it to the Stanley Cup Final before losing in seven games to Florida, will play Dallas or Winnipeg in the next round. The Stars, who lead their series 3-1, will go for a series win Thursday night.
Kapanen’s goal backed up another shutout performance from goalie Stuart Skinner, who made 24 saves and drew several chants of “Stu! Stu!” from Oilers fans in the crowd. Skinner, who was benched two games into the playoffs, also blanked the Golden Knights in Game 4. This was his third start in a row in replacing injured Calvin Pickard.
Adin Hill made 29 saves for Vegas.
Both teams also were involved in the two most recent scoreless playoff games to reach overtime. The Oilers lost to Winnipeg on May 21, 2021, five days after the Golden Knights were defeated by Minnesota.
Edmonton’s only other 1-0 overtime playoff victory occurred in 1997 over Dallas. Vegas has yet to win a postseason game by that score in OT.
The Golden Knights played without captain Mark Stone because of an upper-body injury that caused him to sit out most of Game 3 on Saturday. He played in Game 4 on Monday but was far from being at full health.
Neither team scored through the first two periods, and prime scoring chances were at a premium. There were only five high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick, and the Golden Knights had four of them.
But each team had a grade-A chance early in the third period. Vegas’ Brett Howden whiffed on a tap-in after taking a fantastic pass from Jack Eichel, and shortly after Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl failed to convert on a breakaway. Connor McDavid had a chance on a 2-on-1 to end the game in regulation but was denied by Hill with 1:06 left.
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