Murphy makes Brewers history, wins NL Manager of the Year

MILWAUKEE -- Pat Murphy is reluctant to concede the point, but the manager deserves some credit after a team defies expectations the way his Brewers did in 2024. The young club said "No thanks" to a rebuilding year, made no excuses for injuries, blew past its projected win total and continued the longest run of regular-season success in franchise history.

For that, Murphy was named the National League Manger of the Year Award winner by the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Tuesday, topping fellow finalists Mike Shildt of the Padres and Carlos Mendoza of the Mets. Murphy ranked first on 27 of the 30 ballots cast, and was second on the other three.

• Past Manager of the Year Award winners

Murphy, who turns 66 on Nov. 28, is the first Brewers manager to win the award, which was first bestowed by the BBWAA in 1983. Seven times since then, a Brewers skipper finished as the runner-up, starting with Tom Trebelhorn in ’87 and Phil Garner in ‘92 when Milwaukee was an American League franchise. Since the Brewers’ move to the NL, Ron Roenicke finished second in 2011, as did Craig Counsell four times -- in 2018, ’19, ’21 and ’23.

Murphy, Counsell’s onetime mentor at Notre Dame who became Counsell's bench coach in Milwaukee from 2016-23 before ascending to the top job last fall, finally became the first Brewers skipper to take home the prize.

“To be honest, it’s a little embarrassing,” Murphy said. “Let’s get to the truth: The truth is that evaluating the job the manager does, it encompasses so many things that unless you’ve lived it, it’s tough. … You don’t grow from it if you start believing stuff like this.

“We had great people. The organization is underrated, man. The way [owner] Mark [Attanasio] does his thing, he cares. [GM] Matt Arnold, he got recognition for what he’s done, but he’s been doing it for nine years like this. We had a great staff and we’ve got young, hungry players. That’s what the award should be about.”

That all may be true, but Murphy’s fingerprints on the 2024 Brewers were evident from the very start as the team traded one co-ace, Corbin Burnes, on the eve of Spring Training, and was without another, Brandon Woodruff, all season following right shoulder surgery. Back injuries cost reigning NL Reliever of the Year Devin Williams the first four months of the season and 2018 NL MVP Award winner Christian Yelich the final two months of the season.

Looming over everything was the loss of Counsell, who’d long been associated with the Brewers because he grew up in Milwaukee, played for the Brewers, worked in the front office and then became the winningest manager in franchise history. His contract was up after the 2023 season so his departure was not a total surprise, although the destination was: The rival Cubs.

Murphy emerged quickly as a leading candidate to be Counsell’s replacement, his candidacy boosted by Yelich, among others. The Brewers made the hire official on Nov. 16, 2023, showing their trust in Murphy by hiring an associate manager with no coaching experience in former Milwaukee infielder Rickie Weeks.

“I just didn’t want to let them down,” Murphy said. “I wanted to be prepared. I wanted to make sure I did something to advance the needle a little bit, you know? And infuse something that might make an impact.”

Murphy held it all together, leading a team projected by the PECOTA system for 79 wins to a 93-69 regular season and the Brewers’ second straight NL Central title, their fourth division crown in the past seven seasons and their sixth postseason appearance in that span.

It took the entire roster. The Brewers tied their franchise record by using 17 starting pitchers, with some openers mixed in. With Williams down for so much of the year, 12 pitchers logged at least one save -- a club record. The group finished with MLB’s fifth-best ERA (3.65) and second-best bullpen ERA (3.11). The only relief corps better belonged to Cleveland (2.57), which was managed by the AL Manager of the Year Award winner, Stephen Vogt.

A great defense was a big part of that success. The Brewers won the team Gold Glove Award from Rawlings for the second straight season, with two first-time individual winners in second baseman Brice Turang and right fielder Sal Frelick.

All season, Murphy found little ways to remind the Brewers who they are. There was an “Average Joe’s” jersey hanging in Murphy’s office, and if you saw Patches O’Houlihan inspire the Joe’s to victory over Globo Gym in the 2004 comedy film “Dodgeball,” you understand the reference. There were T-shirts with “UNDAUNTED” across the chest, and talk of clubhouse “pillars” like Yelich and Freddy Peralta, the Brewers’ longest-tenured players.

• The hilarious tales of 'Murph'

When the Brewers slumped late in the year, there was an intense pregame speech from Dustin Pedroia, who played for Murphy at Arizona State before he was an AL Rookie of the Year and MVP Award winner and a World Series champion.

“You never really know [a manager’s impact],” Murphy said. “I say this all the time: I coached Dustin Pedroia for three years. How do I know if I really impacted him? People think I did because he was an underdog and he was a little guy without a lot of physical stuff to him, and all of a sudden his belief system took him to new levels, and then when he got to the big leagues, it didn’t stop.

“But did I impact him? Now, he’s going to say that I did, and we ended up having a close relationship. But you don’t really -- you can’t -- measure that stuff. That’s the beauty of what we do compared to other parts of baseball, where you can qualify everything.”