February 15, 2025
Jeff Torborg, 1990 AL manager of the year and 10-year MLB catcher, dies at 83

Jeff Torborg, 1990 AL manager of the year and 10-year MLB catcher, dies at 83

Former MLB manager and player Jeff Torborg died on Sunday at the age of 83.

The news was first announced by the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Torborg won the 1990 American League Manager of the Year award for leading the Chicago White Sox to second place in the AL West, 94-68. That was a 25-game improvement over the White Sox’s previous season, in which they finished last in the division.

Unfortunately for Torborg and the White Sox, the MLB still consisted of two divisions in 1990. (The Boston Red Sox finished first in the AL East this season with an 88-74 record.) Would there have been one or three wild-card playoff teams? divisions – which MLB introduced four years later – Chicago would have qualified for the postseason.

The White Sox noted Torborg’s death on social media, as did Ozzie Guillen, who played for him for three seasons.

That 1990 season was Torborg’s best of his eleven years as a major league manager. The White Sox posted an 87-75 record the following season. He also managed the Cleveland Indians, New York Mets, Montreal Expos and Florida Marlins during his career.

When he started with Cleveland in 1977, Torborg was the youngest manager in the MLB at 35 years old. In 1976, he was almost named captain of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but the team decided to sign Tommy Lasorda. (That worked out quite well, as Lasorda won two World Series titles and 1,599 games and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997.)

Torborg finished with an overall record of 634-718 and never managed to get a team to the postseason.

He also coached the New York Yankees from 1979 to 1988 and was a broadcaster for CBS Radio and Fox for six years before returning to management in 2000.

Torborg played 10 seasons in the majors as a catcher for the Dodgers and California Angels. He batted .214 in his career with a .533 OPS, eight home runs, 42 doubles and 101 RBI and was part of the Dodgers’ 1965 World Series championship team.

Torborg’s most notable accomplishments as a player were Sandy Koufax’s perfect catch in 1965, Bill Singer’s no-hitter in 1970, and Nolan Ryan’s first no-hitter in 1973.

Rutgers retired Torborg’s No. 10 jersey in 1992 and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame two years later. He earned All-American honors in 1963 and set a program record with a .540 batting average.

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