Showalter finishes third in AL Manager of Year voting

Cleveland’s Terry Francona was named winner of the AL Manager of the Year Award on Tuesday night by the Baseball Writers Association of America, preventing the Orioles’ Buck Showalter from winning it for a fourth time.

Showalter, 60, finished third in the voting, behind Francona and Texas’ Jeff Banister, the 2015 winner.

Francona, who won his second AL Manager of the Year award, received 22 of the 30 first-place votes for leading his Indians to the AL Central crown (and, ultimately, the World Series) despite major injuries to several key players, including All Star outfielder Michael Brantley.

Showalter received two first-place votes, nine second-place votes and seven third-place votes, and was named on 18 of 30 BBWAA ballots. He led the Orioles to 89 wins and the club’s third postseason berth in five years despite most national prognosticators predicting the Orioles would be at or near the bottom of the division in 2016.

Only Tony La Russa and Bobby Cox have won the honor four times.

The votes must be in before the postseason begins, so Showalter’s decision not to pitch Zach Britton in the club’s AL Wild Card loss to the Toronto Blue Jays was not a factor in the outcome of the voting. (Showalter was asked about the decision during the MLB Network awards show, and simply said he regretted it, in retrospect.)

Showalter has won the award three previous times, in 1994 with the New York Yankees, 2004 with the Texas Rangers and 2014 with the Orioles.

The Orioles will not receive any BBWAA awards this postseason. Showalter was the only finalist; Britton did not make the Top 3 for CY Young and Manny Machado was not a finalist for MVP.

The Cy Young awards will be announced Wednesday and MVPs on Thursday, both on MLB Network..