Tuesday night Baltimore Orioles manager Brandon Hyde was named American League Manager of the Year. The Orioles skipper beat out Texas’ Bruce Bochy and Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash to earn the honor, receiving 27 first-place votes in the process.

Mine included.

This fall I was offered the privilege of voting for one of Major League Baseball’s premier awards for the first time, and I’m grateful to have been among the 30 media members who selected this year’s AL Manager of the Year. Unlike the AL MVP and Cy Young awards, who had obvious frontrunners, this was a competitive race and a compelling argument could be made for a number of candidates.

Ultimately I landed on Hyde as my first-place pick, with Cash in second and Bochy in third.

What set Hyde apart for me was how easy he made a very difficult job look. Two years ago Hyde led an Orioles team that lost 110 games. Last year’s club went 83-79. This year most people expected the Orioles to continue trending upwards, but to win the AL East and win 101 games? That’s remarkable.

Hyde also did it with what remains an incredibly young and inexperienced roster. The Orioles did not make any big splashes in free agency. Their biggest offseason additions last year were starting pitcher Kyle Gibson and Adam Frazier, two nice players but not exactly Justin Verlander or Carlos Correa. Instead Hyde took the club’s young homegrown core and helped it flourish, turning the Orioles from an intriguing club on the rise to a bona fide powerhouse.

Sure, you could argue it’s easy to win with players like Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson, but young players don’t always play to their potential and can sometimes be prone to inconsistency. But Baltimore never wavered, and throughout the entire regular season the Orioles were never swept once.

Baltimore’s success did not translate to the postseason, obviously, but MLB’s awards don’t factor in the playoffs and ballots were due by the last day of the regular season. Even though the announcement is only coming this week, Hyde technically won this award weeks ago before a single postseason pitch had been thrown. Had the vote taken place after the playoffs I suspect Bochy would have won in a landslide, but considering he just won his fourth World Series championship, I’m sure Bochy isn’t losing any sleep over how things played out.

So why not Cash or Bochy? I voted Cash second because he overcame an unbelievable rash of injuries (plus Wander Franco’s ugly situation) to help lead Tampa Bay to 99 wins. I had Bochy third because despite a similar run of injuries he kept the Rangers together, staved off what could have been a monumental second-half collapse and ultimately helped Texas go from 68 wins to 90 in just one year, even if they did ultimately lose out on the AL West title.

I also felt Houston’s Dusty Baker was a strong candidate, but while the Astros did ultimately come through in the last weekend to take the division title from Texas, they still only went 13-14 from September onwards and let things get uncomfortable down the stretch. Seattle’s Scott Servais was in a similar boat, his Mariners made an incredible second-half push but ultimately fell apart down the stretch (12-17 from September onwards) to miss the playoffs.

Beyond those top contenders, the Wild Card for me was Alex Cora. Between piecing together a depleted rotation with openers and bulk relievers all summer to navigating the extended absences of Trevor Story and Adam Duvall, Cora deserves a lot of credit for keeping the Red Sox in the playoff picture as long as he did.

If the Red Sox had finished strong and especially if they’d made the postseason I think Cora would have been highly deserving, but given how the club faded down the stretch it would have been hard to justify picking him over Hyde or the others.

In any case, congratulations to Hyde on the well-deserved honor, and to National League winner Skip Schumaker as well. Most managers who lose 108-plus games in two of their first three seasons don’t get the opportunity to enjoy the turnaround when it finally comes, and with that loaded roster and more young talent on the way Hyde and the Orioles have plenty more bright days ahead of them.