Murphy joins list of oldest Manager of the Year Award winners

Age is just a number.

Pat Murphy spent 14 years in MLB as an executive and coach before getting his first chance to be a team’s full-time manager. That opportunity finally came with the 2024 Brewers, and the 65-year-old Murphy made the best of it.

On Tuesday, Murphy was feted as the National League Manager of the Year. Besides being the first Brewer to take home that award, Murphy also landed on this list of the oldest to win a Manager of the Year Award.

• Manager of the Year Award history

Below is the all-time leaderboard, via the Elias Sports Bureau. All listed ages are as of that team’s first game of the season.

1. Jack McKeon, 2003 Marlins
Age: 72 years, 169 days
Team result: 91-71, beat Yankees in World Series

Across the last three decades of the 20th century, McKeon managed four different franchises (Royals, A’s, Padres, Reds) with no playoff appearances to show for it. But then the Marlins staggered to a 16-22 start in 2003 and decided they needed a change.

The rest was history.

After McKeon took over for Jeff Torborg on May 11, the Marlins surged to a 75-49 finish -- second-best in MLB over that time span, behind Atlanta’s 77-49. This was enough to sneak Florida into the playoffs as the NL’s lone Wild Card team, and from there, they defeated the Giants, Cubs (in a seven-game series you might remember for other reasons) and Yankees to win the second World Series in franchise history.

McKeon was the oldest manager to win a World Series at the time, though he was passed by Dusty Baker in 2022.

2. Davey Johnson, 2012 Nationals
Age: 69 years, 66 days
Team result: 98-64, lost to Cardinals in NLDS

Unlike McKeon, Johnson entered his tenure with the Nationals with a myriad of postseason accomplishments, having made five playoff appearances as a manager, including a World Series championship with the legendary 1986 Mets.

As such, it made sense that Johnson would be the man to lead the Nationals to their first playoff appearance since 1981 as the Montreal Expos. Led by a 19-year-old rookie named Bryce Harper, Washington won a still-standing franchise record 98 games, finishing with MLB’s best record before being upset by the 88-74 Cardinals in a five-game NLDS.

3. Jack McKeon, 1999 Reds
Age: 68 years, 133 days
Team result: 96-67, lost one-game Wild Card tiebreaker to Mets

Though McKeon never made the playoffs prior to his aforementioned run with the Marlins, he did have a prior Manager of the Year Award, thanks to his efforts with the 1999 Reds. Led by a stacked offense featuring the likes of Mike Cameron, Barry Larkin and Greg Vaughn, Cincinnati won its most games since its 1976 World Series-winning season, ultimately finishing one game back of Houston in the NL Central race.

With both the Reds and Mets sitting at 96-66, there was a one-game tiebreaker, which New York won 5-0 thanks to a complete game from Al Leiter. But, of course, it wouldn’t take McKeon many more years to get his chance at postseason glory.

4. Buck Showalter, 2022 Mets
Age: 65 years, 319 days
Team result: 101-61, lost in NLWC to Padres

Though it was Dusty Baker who became the oldest manager to win a World Series last year, there were two other veteran managers who made history by taking home Manager of the Year hardware. You’ll get to the AL’s manager in question later, but for the NL, it was Showalter, who took home his fourth career MOY Award after winning one apiece with the Yankees, Rangers and Orioles.

Though Jacob deGrom was limited to 11 appearances due to injury, a star-studded infield featuring the likes of Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil and Francisco Lindor led the Mets to their highest win total since going 108-54 in their 1986 championship season. However, the Mets fell to the Padres in their first playoff series, meaning Showalter still has not won a World Series in six postseason appearances.

5. Pat Murphy, 2024 Brewers
Age: 65 years, 123 days
Team result: 93-69, lost National League Wild Card Series to Mets

Murphy had some big shoes to fill as he stepped into his first full season as a Major League manager. He replaced Craig Counsell in Milwaukee, a manager who had guided the club to a .531 winning percentage and three NL Central titles during his nine-season reign.

However, there was no drop-off with the first-year skipper. Under Murphy’s guidance, the Brewers went 93-69 and claimed another division crown.

The Brewers were knocked out of the playoffs by the Mets in the National League Wild Card Round. But in November, Murphy was deservedly named NL Manager of the Year, making him the first Brewer to win that award. Prior to Murphy, a Brewer had finished as the runner-up for Manager of the Year seven times.

6. Lou Piniella, 2008 Cubs
Age: 64 years, 216 days
Team result: 97-64, lost in NLDS to Dodgers

With an interesting mixture of veterans (Jim Edmonds, Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee) and rookies (Geovany Soto and Kosuke Fukudome are still the only pair of rookie teammates to start an All-Star Game), it took an all-time great manager to get the pieces to fit together for the 2008 Cubs.

Piniella was up to the task in his second season in Chicago, helping the Cubs win their most games in a season since going 98-56-1 in 1945. Though Chicago came up short in the playoffs, it was Piniella’s third career Manager of the Year Award, also having earned two with the Mariners.

7. Bobby Cox, 2005 Braves
Age: 63 years, 319 days
Team result: 90-72, lost in NLDS to Astros

The 2005 season was merely the icing on the cake for what was an outright legendary stretch of Braves baseball. Atlanta won the NL East in every completed season from 1991 to 2005 (excluding the strike-shortened 1994 season), with Cox being the manager for that entire time span. The streaks of 14 straight playoff appearances and 14 straight division titles are both all-time MLB records, with the latter being five more than the next-closest team (1998-2006 Yankees, at nine).

But perhaps the most impressive stat of all from the 2005 Braves? Cox was ejected “only” twice -- tied for his fewest in a 162-game season in his career.

8. Terry Francona, 2022 Guardians
Age: 62 years, 350 days
Team result: 92-70, lost in ALDS to Yankees

As previously alluded to, Showalter wasn’t the only elder statesman to earn Manager of the Year honors in 2022. After leading the Guardians to a division title, Francona earned the award for the third time in a 10-year span, also doing so in 2013 and 2016 with Cleveland.

Though Francona was on the older side, his 2022 roster was anything but. In fact, his top 10 hitters (by plate appearances) and top nine pitchers (by innings) were all younger than 30 as of July 1 of that season. But that youth didn’t stop Cleveland from earning its fourth AL Central title in a seven-season span.

9. Bobby Cox, 2004 Braves
Age: 62 years, 321 days
Team result: 96-66, lost in NLDS to Astros

Cox is, as you can tell by reading this story in its entirety, the oldest person to win consecutive Manager of the Year Awards, doing so in both 2004 and 2005 with Atlanta.

But what made the 2004 season special -- and perhaps what voters were acknowledging by giving Cox the award -- was that the Braves found a much different way to win than during the majority of their dynastic run. Among the team’s legendary “Big Three” starting pitchers, Greg Maddux signed with the Cubs entering the 2004 season, and Tom Glavine had done so with the Mets one year prior. John Smoltz was still on the roster, but he served as the closer in 2004. Yet the roster turnover ended up being no issue for Cox’s Braves, who took home another NL East title like clockwork.

10. Brian Snitker, 2018 Braves
Age: 62 years, 163 days
Team result: 90-72, lost to Dodgers in NLDS

Speaking of Braves teams on dynastic runs, the current Atlanta group has become the fourth team in MLB’s Divisional Era to win six straight division titles. That streak began in 2018, Snitker’s second full season as an MLB manager.

It remains to be seen if Spencer Strider, Bryce Elder and Max Fried will become the next Maddux-Smoltz-Glavine, but what has been established is Snitker’s presence as an elite manager to follow in Cox’s footsteps. As for the 2018 team specifically, it was filled with young talent like Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson and Ronald Acuña Jr., foreshadowing what would be a dominant run for Snitker and the franchise as a whole.

11. Jim Leyland, 2006 Tigers
Age: 61 years, 109 days
Team result: 95-67, lost to Cardinals in World Series

Leyland was an extremely accomplished manager in the 1990s, winning NL Manager of the Year with the Pirates in both 1990 and 1992, and then leading the Marlins to their first World Series win in franchise history in 1997. But when Detroit hired him as its manager in 2006, he was a full seven years removed from coaching, having last managed the 1999 Rockies.

As it turned out, the old skipper still had it.

Returning to the organization that first signed him as a catcher way back in 1963, Leyland turned things around for a team that finished 71-91 in 2005. Led by rookie pitcher Justin Verlander and a deep offense including Magglio Ordonez and Ivan Rodriguez, the Tigers reached the World Series for the first time since 1984, though they were upset by the 83-78 Cardinals (who still own the worst record by any WS champion).