Jeff Banister of the Texas Rangers was selected the AL Manager of the Year — Paul Molitor of the Twins was third in the voting — and Joe Maddon of the Chicago Cubs the NL Manager of the Year.
Banister led the Texas Rangers to a division title in his first season on the job. He got 17 first-place votes for 112 points from the Baseball Writers' Association of America in balloting announced Tuesday.
He is the fifth manager to win in his first year. Washington's Matt Williams won the NL award in 2014, his first as a manager. He was fired after the end of this season.
Texas won 88 games this season — 21 better than last year — in taking the AL West.
"All the things that I've been through in my lifetime — and there were a lot of times that I asked why — well there were times this year that I knew exactly why," Banister, 51, said. "It was so that I could give another group of people some thoughts, some ideas, some toughness and some motivation to continue to press forward."
Houston's A.J. Hinch was second, receiving eight first-place votes and 82 points.
Molitor, 59, another first-year manager, had no managerial experience when he was hired last November to replace Ron Gardenhire, and he was faced with difficult challenges from the start. The Twins were informed three days before their opener that starting pitcher Ervin Santana had been suspended for 80 games after failing a steroids test, and the team promptly lost six of its first seven games.
But Molitor helped the team recover. They finished 83-79, 13 games better than the previous season, and they stayed in contention for a postseason berth until the final weekend.
