CLEVELAND — One day this summer, when the Cleveland Guardians’ season was one poisoned cocktail of rotten play and off-the-field noise, a neighbor stopped Stephen Vogt.

Bet you wish this year was as easy as last year.

Months later, Vogt couldn’t shake the framing of that question.

“You think last year was easy?” Vogt countered.

In spring 2024, as Vogt embarked on his first season as manager, he mentioned to some coworkers that he felt like he was always putting out fires. So Brandon Biller, the assistant home clubhouse manager, called a former staffer who had become a firefighter.

Now, a firefighter helmet rests on the middle shelf on the left side of a back wall unit in Vogt’s office at Progressive Field — beneath the shelf with a $1 bill, which represents how he fines the team’s bullpen coach that amount whenever a reliever walks the first batter, and beneath the shelf with Mr. Monkey, the blue stuffed animal Vogt’s daughter won more than a decade ago at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The monkey, donning a candy-cane-striped shirt, has followed Vogt throughout his baseball career: to Oakland, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Arizona, Atlanta, Oakland again, Seattle and now Cleveland.

Along each of those stops, before he arrived in Cleveland, Vogt prepared for this second act. When he was a backup catcher in A-ball, he didn’t foresee a decade-long stint in the big leagues, with two All-Star nods, a World Series title and a storybook ending in the place his playing career sprouted.

He always had the coaching bug, so he soaked up any bits of wisdom he could from Rays mentors Mitch Lukasiewicz, Jimmy Hoff and Matt Quatraro, and from managers Bob Melvin, Craig Counsell, Pat Murphy, Brian Snitker and Torey Lovullo.

In his first season with the Guardians, Vogt had to establish his own culture in the wake of the departure of a future Hall of Famer in Terry Francona. He had to convince Carl Willis to stick around and guide the pitching staff, and to mesh together a new coaching staff. He had to learn how to accept that he can only stand, idly, a prisoner in the dugout with limited influence on what shakes out on the diamond. He had to learn how to balance the roles of spokesperson, therapist, motivator, punching bag and grim reaper lurking to deliver news no player wants to hear. He had to learn every quirk of his players, and learn who responds to which inspirational tactics. He had to learn how to gain their trust, how to be candid with them, how to show them how much he cared.

The Guardians spent virtually the entire 2024 season in first place.

So, yeah, from the outside, to an unassuming neighbor, perhaps it looked easy. But Vogt swears it was rigorous until the very end, when his team tapped out in the ALCS.

Despite all of that experience, nothing could prepare him for a year like this. The 2025 season tested him in ways he couldn’t have anticipated. He was tossed a manual with blank pages.

“I’ve got a lot more gray than I had a year ago,” Vogt said.

Vogt and Craig Albernaz razz each other like teenaged brothers. The manager is mild-mannered, a guy with an impersonation of everyone he encounters on a regular basis. The bench coach is a quick-witted pitbull with a sharp Boston accent.

The two bicker constantly, they debate decisions in the dugout and they’re as tight-knit as a manager and his lieutenant can be. Albernaz turned down the Chicago White Sox and Miami Marlins managerial gigs last winter in part because of the coaching bond the two have formed in Cleveland. Whether he’ll be able to resist any potential overtures over the next month or two will be interesting, given the host of managerial vacancies across the league.

Vogt was driving them earlier this year and Albernaz was scrolling on Instagram when he spotted a post that claimed Vogt was among the highest-paid managers in the sport. Albernaz knew that wasn’t true, but he used it as a way to tease his buddy.

Anytime the Guardians played well, Albernaz would inflate the number and share the fake figure with anyone who would listen. In early July, Vogt was earning $50,000 a year. By September, his salary was $30 million.

The number fluctuated a ton this year. This team didn’t experience ebbs and flows. It rode the steep, stomach-churning hills of the Millennium Force. Vogt had to apply everything he learned last year to pull his team through the mud this summer.

There was a 10-game skid, a stretch of summer brilliance, another 10-day funk, a couple of gambling-related dismissals, some selling at the deadline with the threat of more turnover and, ultimately, a historic rally to reach the postseason, even if for only three, tense days.

And then it ended.

Craig Albernaz, Stephen Vogt and Carl Willis in the Guardians dugout during a game in July. (David Richard / Imagn Images)

“There’s only one team at the end of the year that’s happy,” said catcher Austin Hedges.

The season ends abruptly, with no warning. For several months, this was a rotten season, one to forget, the “Dumb and Dumber To” of sequels after an ALCS run the year before. Then, they erased a 15 1/2-game deficit to storm back and win the AL Central. With such a swift exit from the playoffs after a September revival, players weren’t ready to move on.

Hedges, Daniel Schneemann, Bo Naylor, David Fry and Matt Festa sat around a table with some beverages after the Game 3 loss to the Detroit Tigers. They seemed to have no intention of leaving. If the conversation ever ran dry, there was a stack of navy playing cards waiting for them. Steven Kwan and Kyle Manzardo played Super Smash Bros. in the far corner of the room, and Tanner Bibee and Nolan Jones pulled up chairs to watch. There were high-fives and hugs and handshakes, low-decibel interviews and suitcase packing.

“It stings,” Vogt said. “It stings for it to end that way. I couldn’t be more proud of them, of what we accomplished. It’s not enough. We want more. And I think that’s really the message is ‘Let this sting.’ We’re close. We are really close. We’re not quite there yet. There’s things we need to improve upon. There’s things we need to get better with. But the overarching theme is I’m so proud of that group for not quitting. They have every excuse, every reason thrown at them to quit at any point during this summer and they refused to do that.”

They’ll lean on the way they pushed through adversity. They’ll lean on the hope that the young hitters who offered a late-season tease can supply much of what’s missing in the lineup. George Valera and Chase DeLauter went from injured afterthoughts to prime interview targets after playoff games.

“Next year is going to be less daunting and they’re going to be like, ‘Oh, there’s no pressure,’” Hedges said.

They’ll lean on the development of the starting rotation. Gavin Williams packed up a cardboard box after Game 3. Resting on top of his belongings was the lineup card from his near no-hitter against the New York Mets in early August. Joey Cantillo emerged as a force, winning AL Rookie of the Month for September. He was so impressive that Willis, who has steered stalwarts like CC Sabathia and Felix Hernández to Cy Young Awards, couldn’t help but text him at 1 a.m. after an eight-inning gem a few weeks ago. Slade Cecconi insists nothing about him is the same as it was a year ago, and for good measure.

“The confidence that came from that process really just built,” Cecconi said, “until it got to a point in September where I felt like I was the best version of myself that I’ve ever been, and there’s only room to grow from there.”

Albernaz introduced Vogt at the BBWAA awards dinner in New York last winter, when Vogt collected his Manager of the Year hardware. Albernaz shared that he suspected he’d be making the same introduction in the future.

Vogt could win the award again this year. It’s typically an arbitrary honor handed to the manager of the team that most exceeded expectations, even if those expectations were flawed to begin with. Vogt took over a middling team in 2024 and, surprise, it won the division and advanced to the ALCS.

This year, anyone on the outside could see the strife the team endured. Maybe the team’s late-season charge will earn him a second straight recognition.

There was a lot of good and a lot of bad to take away from this Guardians season. There can also be good that comes from outlasting the bad. That’s what the club is banking on as it shifts its sights to what’s next.

This wasn’t an easy season for anyone involved. Then again, neither was last year.

“There’s no ending of the season,” Vogt said. “It doesn’t end gradually. It just halts. We’ve been with each other every day for eight months. More time with each other than our family. Working together, laughing together, crying together, yelling together. You name it. Now it stops. And I had so much fun with this group. Just their resilience, everything they went through. They didn’t let it faze them.”

(Top photo of Stephen Vogt: Nick Cammett / Getty Images)