In his first year on the job, Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt is on the verge of winning … [+] the American League’s Central Division title. (AP Photo/Nick Cammett)
Who knew Stephen Vogt had it in him?
Taking his team, the Cleveland Guardians, to the postseason as a rookie manager?
Nope. It is the teary emotions that preceded it.
It was earlier this week, Monday, to be exact, following yet another scrappy performance by Vogt’s team in which they turned an early 3-0 deficit to division rival Minnesota into a 4-3 victory, that moved the leading candidate for the American League Manager of the Year Award to tears.
In his postgame session with reporters Vogt got choked up talking about what this team, his players, have achieved this season.
“I love these guys,” said the rookie manager, whose team came within six days of going wire-to-wire in first place in the American League’s Central Division.
Entering the first game of Cleveland’s three-game series with St. Louis Friday night, the Guardians had been in first place in their division for 140 consecutive days. Barring a total collapse, Cleveland will finish the regular season as division champions, having been in first place for 148 consecutive days.
That is not your standard entry on the resume of a rookie manager.
Stephen Vogt, however, is not your typical rookie manager. “As a first-year manager you don’t know what you don’t know,” said the first-year manager.
Hired by the Guardians on November 6 of last year, Vogt faced the unenviable challenge of following Cleveland managerial icon Terry Francona.
Vogt went into the job with zero experience at being a manager or an icon. Let’s just say that he is off to a good start at both. Hired by Cleveland after playing for six teams in a 10-year major league career, manager Vogt hit the ground running, and quickly produced a team that hit the ground winning.
This even though Cleveland’s best pitcher, former Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber, underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery after two starts, and missed the rest of the season.
That was the start of a season-long parade of injuries to Cleveland’s pitching staff, especially to the starting rotation, that triggered a season-long scramble by the team’s front office looking for emergency starters. A total of 13 different pitchers have started games for the Guardians.
Somehow Vogt kept his team, and his starting rotation, afloat throughout the summer. For that they could thank a bullpen pieced together by the front office. It was, and is, a bullpen that quickly evolved into the best bullpen in the majors.
Closer Emmanuel Clase, who should be a strong candidate for the Cy Young Award, was the biggest factor in holding the pitching staff together. The 26-year-old Clase was in some ways a one-man bullpen.
In 71 appearances, Clase has a record of 4-2, with a nearly unfathomable 0.63 ERA, and a major league-leading, and franchise record, 46 saves. Opposing batters are hitting – if you can call it that – .152 vs. Clase. Right-handed hitters are hitting .191 against him and left-handed hitters .111. In 63 appearances, Clase has struck out 64, with just eight walks.
Preceding Clase to the mound on days it is necessary are an arsenal of relievers with eye-popping ERA’s: Cade Smith (1.96), Hunter Gaddis (1.53), Tim Herrin (1.90), and Eli Morgan (1.64). Sidewinder Nick Sandlin’s billowy 3.93 ERA is off-set by his won-loss record: 8-0.
Vogt and Cleveland pitching coach Carl Willis orchestrate the staff brilliantly. All you need to know about the Guardians’ bullpen, the pitchers that reside there, and the two men – Vogt and Willis – pulling the strings is this:
The Guardians’ record when leading after six innings: 68-2.
The Guardians’ record when leading after seven innings: 74-2.
The Guardians’ record when leading after eight innings: 79-0.
Everything considered it is the American League’s most indestructible bullpen.
Opposing managers cringe when they see Vogt or Willis reach for the dugout phone.
That has been the formula for rookie manager Stephen Vogt and his band of overachievers, for whom the fun is just starting.
“For us this is really special,” said Vogt. “The goal is to get in. From here we keep pushing. It’s believing in what you’re doing.”
Terry Francona had some killer bullpens in his time as Cleveland’s manager, but Vogt, in his first year on the job, as an even better one.
Vogt said he had an inkling very early on that his group was something special.
“The first road trip (of the season) we saw something special that this team might be able to get it done,” said Vogt, who in his first year on the job immediately set the parameters: “If you come to spring training not expecting to win the World Series, don’t come.”
