If you doubted the Brewers ahead of the 2024 season, you weren't alone.
Not only did Milwaukee trade Corbin Burnes and lose Brandon Woodruff to a season-long injury, but the Brewers saw manager Craig Counsell leave after winning an NL Central title.
Many saw this season as a year of transition for the Brewers, but no one remembered to tell the players — or their first-year manager. Milwaukee won even more games than it did in 2023 and was the first team in the league to clinch a postseason berth.
Here's what you need to know about the manager who got the Brewers there and his fascinating backstory.
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Who is the Brewers' manager?
The Brewers' manager is Pat Murphy, who is finishing up his first season as a full-time MLB manager.
While Murphy is a rookie manager, he's far from inexperienced. Not exactly a young guy at 65 years old, Murphy is the fifth-oldest manager in baseball, younger than only Ron Washington, Bruce Bochy, Brian Snitker and Bud Black.
Murphy was an NCAA Division I baseball head coach for 22 years, including 15 seasons as Arizona State's head coach from 1995-2009, He ultimately resigned during an NCAA investigation into employment and recruiting violations.
That bump in the road allowed Murphy to explore an MLB coaching and front office career, and he joined the Padres as an assistant to baseball operations in 2010. Murphy became a minor-league manager in the Padres' system in 2011 and remained in the minors until the middle of the 2015 season, when San Diego fired manager Bud Black and replaced him with Murphy on an interim basis.
Murphy went 42-54 and didn't get the full-time job, which ultimately was given to Andy Green. He instead joined Counsell as his bench coach in Milwaukee, a year after the Padres blocked Murphy from joining Counsell's staff early in the season.
Murphy ran into another obstacle in 2020 when he suffered a heart attack at a team workout ahead of the shortened MLB season. He recovered in time to rejoin the Brewers before the end of the season.
The Brewers promoted Murphy to their managerial role less than two weeks after Counsell left, bucking the trend of major-league teams going younger and instead choosing a unique blend of lifelong baseball experience but managerial inexperience at the MLB level.
MORE: How old is Brewers phenom Jackson Chourio?
What happened to Craig Counsell?
Counsell let his contract expire at the end of the 2023 season in hopes of testing the free-agent market. Counsell wanted to reset the market for managerial salaries, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and the Brewers weren't prepared to make that kind of offer as a lower-budget team.
The Mets were believed to be a major player for Counsell with former Brewers president David Stearns running New York's front office, but Counsell surprised the baseball world by agreeing to join the Cubs — a team that actually had a manager in place at the time the deal was reported.
Chicago ultimately fired David Ross, giving Counsell a five-year, $40 million contract. The Cubs missed the playoffs in Counsell's first season, finishing 10 games behind the Brewers.
Pat Murphy coaching timeline
- 1988-1994: Head coach, Notre Dame
- 1995-2009: Head coach, Arizona State
- 2010: Assistant to baseball operations, San Diego Padres
- 2011-2012: Manager, Padres' short-season single-A affiliate
- 2013-2015: Manager, Padres' triple-A affiliate
- 2015: Interim manager, San Diego Padres
- 2016-2023: Bench coach, Milwaukee Brewers
- 2024: Manager, Milwaukee Brewers
Murphy went 947-400-2 as a college baseball head coach, reaching the College World Series four times and finishing as the national runner-up in 1998.
