Explaining my BBWAA vote for AL Manager of the Year

I was in the minority in the voting for the American League's Manager of the Year. I was one of two voters from the Baseball Writers' Association of America to cast my first-place ballot for New York's Joe Girardi, who led the Yankees to a wild card spot in the playoffs. Texas' Jeff Banister, with 17 first-place votes, won the award followed by Houston's A.J. Hinch and Minnesota's Paul Molitor. Banister led the Rangers to the AL West title. This was the most intriguing Manager of the Year vote in either league for a long time. I came close to voting for Banister and it was difficult to not vote for either Hinch or Molitor. And the Royals' Ned Yost, as well as Toronto's John Gibbons, deserved consideration as well, but neither got any serious attention overall. The night before the ballots were due - that would be the night before the regular season ended - I selected Girardi. I believe this award should go to the manager who has the most problems to solve and still makes the postseason. It doesn't always have to go to the surprise team. This was Girardi's best managing job ever. He had questions at virtually every position. At the start, Girardi had to deal with the distraction of Alex Rodriguez returning from a year-long PED suspension. Then he had build up new shortstop Didi Gregorius, even though he had big-time struggles in taking over for pinstripe legend Derek Jeter. Girardi never had a steady second baseman that could produce. His catcher, Brian McCann, didn't hit. The Yankees' two most productive hitters fell off the map in the second half, A-Rod because of a slump and first baseman Mark Teixeira because of injury. Center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury was hurt. In the rotation, CC Sabathia was ineffective. Michael Pineda was hurt. Ivan Nova didn't pitch well after returning from elbow surgery. Masahiro Tanaka pitched well, but was a constant concern with his elbow. The rest of the rotation was young. The Yankees' bullpen had Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances, but after that, it was thin. Miller and Betances showed wear in September. And the Yankees were the only contending team that didn't get help from ownership at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, unless you call Dustin Ackley a game-changing addition. You can't say that about other teams. Hinch turned the Astros into a winner, but it didn't hurt that management added Scott Kazmir to the rotation and Carlos Gomez to the outfield. Yes, Banister lost pitcher Yu Darvish at the start of the season and, yes, the Rangers had a 21-win improvement (albeit from a team that had a ton of injuries) to win the AL West. But the Rangers were 50-52 on July 31, the day they picked up starter Cole Hamels and reliever Jake Diekman from the Phillies and reliever Sam Dyson from Miami in trades. The credit for their title goes more to management than Banister. Molitor, another rookie manager, had the Twins in contention all season despite injuries to Ervin Santana and Phil Hughes, the Twins' two best pitchers, and a lineup that was developing with prospects Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton and Aaron Hicks. So I voted for Girardi, Hinch and Molitor. Banister won award, but I don't agree with my colleagues on this one.