SEATTLE -- Scott Servais makes it no secret that his individual success is predicated on those behind the scenes, and he reiterated as much ahead of the unveiling of the American League Manager of the Year Award on MLB Network on Tuesday.

After finishing as the runner-up last year, the Mariners’ manager came up short in the voting for the 2022 honor administered by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, finishing third behind Cleveland’s Terry Francona and Baltimore’s Brandon Hyde, respectively.

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Servais received one first-place vote, eight second-place votes and 14 third-place votes for a total of 43 points. Francona received 17 first-place votes and 112 points. Hyde garnered nine first-place tallies and 79 points.

But that didn’t erase the pride Servais shared in the players he oversaw and the coaches that helped foster the environment that led Seattle in snapping the longest active playoff drought in major American professional sports.

“This was a fantastic year for everybody in our organization,” Servais said on MLB Network. “I’m very thankful. We’ve got a great group of players, an awesome coaching staff to work with and a front office that we've been together for a while now, and we're starting to head in the right direction.”

Francona, who took home the award for the third time, was a deserving winner after leading Cleveland to a surprise AL Central title despite entering the year with diminished expectations and managing MLB’s youngest roster. Hyde oversaw an Orioles club that finished 83-79 after losing 110 games the year prior, one of the biggest turnarounds in history.

Their standing ahead of Servais underscores the logic -- and challenges -- of voting for this award more than the others, where there aren’t many statistical accolades to contextualize a manager’s success and many winners are at the helm of a club that exceed preseason expectations. Servais was in that spot last year, when the Mariners were arguably MLB’s biggest surprise team en route to 90 wins, but he finished second to Kevin Cash, whose Rays had the AL’s best record.

Nonetheless, Servais was also a worthy candidate this year after leading the Mariners from surprise darlings in 2021 to territory not experienced like any in his span of seven seasons, into the challenging waters of heightened expectations. Seattle began the year 29-39 and was teetering on an early summer spiral before the club dug itself out of a fourth-place hole, when it had the eighth-worst record in baseball.

“We had to hit a low point -- and you've been on those teams, you kind of realized that we're kind of at the bottom of the barrel,” Servais said. “We need to turn it, and a credit to our players, really. 

“We acquired a couple of veteran guys that came in and kind of helped our younger group along, and our pitching really took off. I can't say enough about the starting pitching we had this year. And, as you know, that's what it takes to put big streaks together. You got to have a chance to win every night, and our starters and in our bullpen were just awesome for us.”

Recognizing the massive hole it had dug, Seattle responded with a 22-3 stretch that included a 14-game win streak leading into the All-Star break. The Mariners were 61-33 over their final 94 regular-season games, a .649 winning percentage that was second-best in the AL in that span.

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The only AL team with a better mark was Houston, which Seattle went toe to toe with in one of the better postseason series this year -- a reminder that the Mariners are close but still chasing their division rivals.

“We've got to figure out a way to catch the Astros, which isn't going to be easy, but, like I said, we continue to get better,” Servais said. “I enjoy going to work, I love my job and love working with this group that we have right now.”

Servais doesn’t have BBWAA hardware to show for this year, but his efforts were nonetheless well recognized and should serve as a springboard for 2023.

Additional BBWAA award winners for each league will be announced over the next two days at 6 p.m. ET/3 PT on MLB Network. The Cy Young Award winners will be revealed on Wednesday and the MVPs on Thursday.