The Opener: Venable, Murphy, Pagan

And we’re off! The Emilio Pagan signing didn’t dominate headlines, but it’s the first somewhat significant move of the offseason. More on Detroit’s new closer below. 1. Venable named AL Manager of the Year White Sox skipper Will Venable took home the top managerial honor last night. He beat out Kevin Cash of the Rays and Chad Tracy of the Red Sox. Venable engineered an impressive turnaround in Chicago. The White Sox had lost 100+ games for three straight years, including in Venable’s debut campaign. The club went 84-78 this season and snagged an AL Wild Card berth. Chicago breezed by the Astros in the Wild Card round, but came up just short in the ALDS against the Guardians. 2. Murphy wins NL Manager of the Year (again) Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Brewers skipper Pat Murphy won NL Manager of the Year for the third consecutive season. He topped Don Mattingly of the Phillies and Walt Weiss of the Braves this year. Murphy has won the NL Central in each year at the helm in Milwaukee. His club boasted the best record in the league in 2026. The Brewers piled up 103 wins in the regular season, then cruised through the playoffs. They won the franchise’s first World Series by taking four of five games from the Rays. 3. Pagan to the Tigers Detroit had a vacancy to fill in the bullpen with Kenley Jansen heading to free agency. The club settled on Pagan to be their new closer. The veteran righty had a resurgent 2025 in Cincinnati, saving a career-best 32 games. He was effective again this past season, but missed nearly two months with a severe hamstring injury. Pagan declined his $10MM player option with the Reds to enter free agency. He grabbed an extra $1M in his deal with the Tigers. Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images View Comments (4)