The Cleveland Guardians (formerly known as the Indians) are a professional baseball franchise based in Cleveland, Ohio that formed in 1901. They are members of the Central division of Major League Baseball's American League.[1] The current manager of the Guardians is Stephen Vogt, who replaced Terry Francona after he stepped down at the end of the 2023 season.
Cleveland has had 47 managers in their major league history. Jimmy McAleer became the first manager of the then Cleveland Blues in 1901, serving for one season. In 1901, McAleer was replaced with Bill Armour. Cleveland made their first playoff appearance under Tris Speaker in 1920. Out of the seven managers that have led Cleveland into the postseason, only Speaker and Lou Boudreau have led Cleveland to World Series championships, doing so in 1920 and 1948, respectively. Al López (1954), Mike Hargrove (1995 and 1997) and Terry Francona (2016) have also appeared in World Series with Cleveland. The highest winning percentage of any manager who managed at least one season was López, with a percentage of .617. The lowest percentage was Johnny Lipon's .305 in 1971, although he managed for only 59 games. The lowest percentage of a manager with at least one season with Cleveland was McAleer's .397 in 1901.
Francona managed more regular season games (1,678) than any other Cleveland manager. Francona is also the winningest manager in Cleveland MLB history, with 921 wins. Charlie Manuel, Eric Wedge, Speaker, Boudreau, López, Hargrove and Francona are the only managers to have led Cleveland into the playoffs. Speaker, Boudreau, López, Walter Johnson, Joe Gordon, Nap Lajoie and Frank Robinson are the seven members of the Baseball Hall of Fame who are also former managers of this club. Of those seven, López is the only one inducted as a manager.[2][3][4] Wedge and Francona are the only Cleveland managers to win the Manager of the Year award; Wedge in 2007, and Francona in 2013, 2016, and 2022.[5]