Sporting News names Alex Anthopoulos MLB Executive of Year

Justin McGuire

Sporting News names Alex Anthopoulos MLB Executive of Year image

Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos is Sporting News’ 2015 Major League Baseball Executive of the Year, as selected by a panel of 47 major league executives. Voting for the honor, which SN has awarded since 1936, concluded before the start of the postseason.

Anthopoulos became the first Blue Jays executive to win the award after a bold series of moves helped lead Toronto to its first division title and playoff appearance in 22 years.

SN AWARDS: AL Rookie of Year | NL Rookie of Year | AL All-Star Team | NL All-Star team

But Anthopoulos, 38, will not be back in the Blue Jays' front office in 2016.

The team announced Thursday that he rejected a contract extension offer. A rift between Anthopoulos and new team president and CEO Mark Shapiro led to the decision, according to multiple reports.

MORE: Josh Donaldson is MLB Player of the Year

'We need to do something else'

The moves that transformed the Blue Jays into the AL East's best team began last offseason. A few weeks after signing free-agent catcher Russell Martin, Anthopoulos stunned the baseball world by dealing Brett Lawrie and three prospects to the A's for All-Star third baseman Josh Donaldson. Both moves paid off, especially the trade for Donaldson, who was voted SN's MLB Player of the Year and is likely to be AL MVP.

Still, the Jays were trailing the Yankees and hovering around .500 in July. "He kept pushing and identified if we're going to get over the top here this year we're in a good position, but we need to do something else, he went out and made the big trades and we took off," manager John Gibbons said.

The big trades were indeed big. Anthopoulos acquired Rockies star Troy Tulowitzki, as well as LaTroy Hawkins, in exchange for Jose Reyes, Jeff Hoffman and Miguel Castro. Then he acquired All-Star pitcher David Price from the Tigers for Daniel Norris, Matt Boyd and Jairo Labourt.

Tulowitizki stabilized the team's defense and made a potent lineup even stronger. And Price provided the Jays with the ace they needed.

The team surged after that, leaving the Yankees well behind.

Sporting News MLB writer Jesse Spector contributed to this story.

VOTING RESULTS

(Voting by AL and NL GMs and assistant GMs)

1. Alex Anthopoulos, Blue Jays — 21

2. Neil Huntington, Pirates — 10

3. Dayton Moore, Royals — 4

4. Sandy Alderson — 3
John Mozeliak — 3

6. Jeff Luhnow — 2
Terry Ryan — 2

7. Theo Epstein —1
Andrew Friedman — 1

Justin McGuire