Sporting News Executive of the Year Award

The Sporting News Executive of the Year Award was established in 1936 and is given annually to one executive, including general managers, in Major League Baseball (MLB). The presenting company, originally known as The Sporting News, has been known as Sporting News since 2002. Listed below in chronological order are the baseball executives chosen as recipients of the award.

The first recipient of the award was Branch Rickey, who went on to win the award a total of three times, twice with the St. Louis Cardinals and once with the Brooklyn Dodgers. George Weiss, who had a long career as an executive with the New York Yankees, has the most wins, four, with three of them coming consecutively in 1950–1952. The most recent repeat winner of the award is Billy Beane, who won the award in 1999, 2012, and 2018, all with the Oakland Athletics. Executives with the Yankees of the American League have won the award eight times, more than any other team. In the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals have the most wins, seven. There has been one instance of the award being presented to an MLB executive rather than a team executive; Lee MacPhail in 1966.

Key[]

Year	Links to an article about the corresponding MLB season
Player (X)	Denotes winning executive and number of times they had won the award at that point (if more than one)
Bold	The winning executive's team won the World Series that same year
^	Indicates multiple award winners in the same year
	Member of the Baseball Hall of Fame as an executive

Award winners[]

Branch Rickey

Bill Veeck

Al Rosen

Billy Beane

Mark Shapiro

Theo Epstein

Year	Name	Team	League
1936	Branch Rickey (1)	St. Louis Cardinals	National
1937	Ed Barrow (1)	New York Yankees	American
1938	Warren Giles	Cincinnati Reds	National
1939	Larry MacPhail	Brooklyn Dodgers	National
1940	Walter Briggs Sr.	Detroit Tigers	American
1941	Ed Barrow (2)	New York Yankees	American
1942	Branch Rickey (2)	St. Louis Cardinals	National
1943	Clark Griffith	Washington Senators	American
1944	Bill DeWitt	St. Louis Browns	American
1945	Phil Wrigley	Chicago Cubs	National
1946	Tom Yawkey	Boston Red Sox	American
1947	Branch Rickey (3)	Brooklyn Dodgers	National
1948	Bill Veeck (1)	Cleveland Indians	American
1949	Bob Carpenter	Philadelphia Phillies	National
1950	George Weiss (1)	New York Yankees	American
1951	George Weiss (2)	New York Yankees	American
1952	George Weiss (3)	New York Yankees	American
1953	Lou Perini	Milwaukee Braves	National
1954	Horace Stoneham	New York Giants	National
1955	Walter O'Malley	Brooklyn Dodgers	National
1956	Gabe Paul (1)	Cincinnati Redlegs	National
1957	Frank Lane	St. Louis Cardinals	National
1958	Joe L. Brown	Pittsburgh Pirates	National
1959	Buzzie Bavasi	Los Angeles Dodgers	National
1960	George Weiss (4)	New York Yankees	American
1961	Dan Topping	New York Yankees	American
1962	Fred Haney	Los Angeles Angels	American
1963	Bing Devine (1)	St. Louis Cardinals	National
1964	Bing Devine (2)	St. Louis Cardinals	National
1965	Calvin Griffith	Minnesota Twins	American
1966	Lee MacPhail	MLB Chief Assistant	—
1967	Dick O'Connell (1)	Boston Red Sox	American
1968	Jim Campbell	Detroit Tigers	American
1969	Johnny Murphy	New York Mets	National
1970	Harry Dalton (1)	Baltimore Orioles	American
1971	Cedric Tallis	Kansas City Royals	American
1972	Roland Hemond (1)	Chicago White Sox	American
1973	Bob Howsam	Cincinnati Reds	National
1974	Gabe Paul (2)	New York Yankees	American
1975	Dick O'Connell (2)	Boston Red Sox	American
1976	Joe Burke	Kansas City Royals	American
1977	Bill Veeck (2)	Chicago White Sox	American
1978	Spec Richardson	San Francisco Giants	National
1979	Hank Peters (1)	Baltimore Orioles	American
1980	Tal Smith	Houston Astros	National
1981	John McHale	Montreal Expos	National
1982	Harry Dalton (2)	Milwaukee Brewers	National
1983	Hank Peters (2)	Baltimore Orioles	American
1984	Dallas Green	Chicago Cubs	National
1985	John Schuerholz	Kansas City Royals	American
1986	Frank Cashen	New York Mets	National
1987	Al Rosen	San Francisco Giants	National
1988	Fred Claire	Los Angeles Dodgers	National
1989	Roland Hemond (2)	Baltimore Orioles	American
1990	Bob Quinn	Cincinnati Reds	National
1991	Andy MacPhail	Minnesota Twins	American
1992	Dan Duquette (1)	Montreal Expos	National
1993	Lee Thomas	Philadelphia Phillies	National
1994	John Hart (1)	Cleveland Indians	American
1995	John Hart (2)	Cleveland Indians	American
1996	Doug Melvin	Texas Rangers	American
1997	Cam Bonifay	Pittsburgh Pirates	National
1998	Gerry Hunsicker	Houston Astros	National
1999	Billy Beane (1)	Oakland Athletics	American
2000	Walt Jocketty (1)	St. Louis Cardinals	National
2001	Pat Gillick	Seattle Mariners	American
2002	Terry Ryan (1)	Minnesota Twins	American
2003	Brian Sabean	San Francisco Giants	National
2004	Walt Jocketty (2)	St. Louis Cardinals	National
2005	Mark Shapiro (1)	Cleveland Indians	American
2006	Terry Ryan (2)	Minnesota Twins	American
2007	Mark Shapiro (2)	Cleveland Indians	American
2008	Andrew Friedman	Tampa Bay Rays	American
2009	Dan O'Dowd	Colorado Rockies	National
2010	Walt Jocketty (3)	Cincinnati Reds	National
2011^	Dave Dombrowski	Detroit Tigers	American
	Doug Melvin (2)	Milwaukee Brewers	National
2012	Billy Beane (2)	Oakland Athletics	American
2013	Ben Cherington	Boston Red Sox	American
2014	Dan Duquette (2)	Baltimore Orioles	American
2015	Alex Anthopoulos	Toronto Blue Jays	American
2016	Theo Epstein	Chicago Cubs	National
2017	Chris Antonetti	Cleveland Indians	American
2018	Billy Beane (3)	Oakland Athletics	American
2019	Erik Neander	Tampa Bay Rays	American
2020	Rick Hahn	Chicago White Sox	American
2021	Farhan Zaidi	San Francisco Giants	National

Source:^[1]

See also[]

• Baseball America Major League Executive of the Year
• MLB Executive of the Year Award
• List of Major League Baseball awards

References[]