The Texas Rangers' Jeff Banister was named American League manager of the year last season, but the award could easily have gone to the Minnesota Twins' Paul Molitor, who in his first year led a piecemeal club to a second-place finish in the AL Central behind World Series champion Kansas City after the Twins had finished last in 2014.
The Twins went from 70 victories in 2014 to 83 last year. Molitor will go into spring training next month with much the same focus as last season, but intent on improving.
"I kind of kept track of mistakes more than things that went well," Molitor said.