MLB will reveal 2026 Manager of the Year winners at 7 p.m. ET on MLB Network and MLB+

By Vancouver Television Sports Desk

Major League Baseball will reveal the 2026 Manager of the Year Award winners at 7 p.m. ET tonight on MLB Network and MLB+, with voting conducted after the conclusion of the regular season. The award will recognize the managers MLB has listed as the six finalists, each of whom reached the postseason in 2026 and was nominated following the end of regular-season play.

MLB’s finalist list includes Kevin Cash of the Tampa Bay Rays, whose club rebounded after missing the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. MLB’s preview notes that on Opening Day, projections pointed toward a sub-.500 finish for Tampa Bay, citing a FanGraphs projection of 79–83 and a roughly 25.2% chance to reach the postseason. Instead, the Rays finished 98–64, won the AL East by 4 1/2 games and earned the top spot in the league’s postseason field.

Boston’s finalist is Chad Tracy, identified by MLB as a mid-season managerial replacement who was not even managing at the major league level at the start of his 2026 run. MLB reports that Tracy was working as the manager of the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox on April 25, when he received a phone call from Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and was directed to travel to Baltimore. MLB adds that Tracy was named interim manager after Alex Cora was dismissed, and that the Red Sox struggled early before improving sharply after late June.

MLB’s timeline for Boston begins with the team having a 32–46 record on June 25 and the worst winning percentage (.410) in the American League at that point. MLB then describes a change that began on June 25, with Boston going on a 32–5 run that vaulted the club back into the postseason picture, culminating in Tracy’s Manager of the Year finalist status.

Chicago’s finalist is Will Venable, listed by MLB as a manager coming off a previous stretch in which the White Sox did not post a true playoff profile from 2023 through 2025. MLB’s preview says the White Sox lost 100-plus games in each of those years, including a Modern Era record of 121 losses in 2024, and that for four straight seasons the team was not truly a playoff contender. In 2026, the White Sox are presented by MLB as having turned that trajectory around.

According to MLB, Chicago’s 2026 campaign produced 84 wins and the sixth seed, along with a third Wild Card spot in the American League playoffs. MLB further states that the club earned its organization’s first postseason series victory since the 2005 World Series run, setting the stage for Venable’s nomination as a Manager of the Year finalist.

The Philadelphia finalist is Don Mattingly, with MLB describing the Phillies’ late-April situation and subsequent managerial change. MLB reports that on April 26, Philadelphia dropped a Sunday game against the Atlanta Braves to fall to 9–19. It also notes that the night before Philadelphia snapped a 10-game losing streak, but that the overall start remained poor, leading MLB to state that Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski fired Rob Thomson on April 28 and replaced him with Mattingly.

MLB says Philadelphia then improved substantially, finishing the rest of the season with the fourth-best record in baseball and capturing the third NL Wild Card on the final day of the regular season. The combined early-season turnaround and postseason qualification are cited by MLB as central context for why Mattingly is among the finalists for Manager of the Year.

Milwaukee’s finalist is Pat Murphy, with MLB presenting him as the first Brewers manager to win the award. MLB notes that Murphy previously won the award after leading Milwaukee to a division title in 2024 in his first year as skipper. MLB adds that Murphy again led the Brewers to Major League-leading 97 victories in 2025, while setting a franchise record, and then returned the following season with another franchise-record total of 103 wins.

MLB’s preview emphasizes the rarity of repeating at the top of the managerial award. It notes that no manager has ever won the award three years in a row, and positions Murphy as a finalist carrying the possibility of continued historical achievement even as this year’s winner has not yet been named.

The sixth finalist is Walt Weiss of the Atlanta Braves, whom MLB lists as navigating his first season as Atlanta’s skipper. MLB highlights a specific early-season incident from April 7 in which Weiss tackled Los Angeles Angels designated hitter Jorge Soler during a benches-clearing brawl. MLB then links the response to what it describes as a strong stretch that followed.

In MLB’s account, after Weiss’s first-season confrontation, the Braves posted a 20–6 run that allowed them to claim early command of the NL East and continue from there. That overall performance and the team’s resulting postseason status are presented by MLB as factors underlying Weiss’s selection as a Manager of the Year finalist as the winner is scheduled to be announced later tonight.

With the 7 p.m. ET announcement still pending, MLB has not yet specified which of the six finalists will take home the 2026 honors during tonight’s televised and streaming program. Viewers and listeners in Canada following the MLB Network and MLB+ presentation can expect the winners to be revealed as the regular-season postseason awards conclude for 2026, with voting conducted at the end of the regular season as described by MLB.