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Pat Murphy (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images)
Pat Murphy calls the shots on the field for the Brewers.
But to hear one of his players tell it, he’s also positively affecting lives.
“I’ve grown tremendously playing under the man for the last two seasons,” said Jake Bauers, a six-year MLB veteran. “Not only as a baseball player, but as a man. He’s changed my perspective on life a little bit. I feel like he’s made me a better husband, made me a better father.
“That’s something I’ll never be able to repay, but I appreciate everything he’s done for me.”
The feeling is mutual for Murphy, who in his second season as manager guided a Brewers team of which little was expected externally entering spring training to a third consecutive National League Central title, a franchise-record and MLB-best 97 wins and Milwaukee’s first appearance in the NL Championship Series since 2018.
There was also the pocket pancake—a hilarious moment that went viral after a national broadcast in which Murphy pulled a pancake out of his pocket during a live interview and took a bite—more heartwarming postgame news conferences featuring Murphy’s two young sons, Austin and Jaxon, and countless wisecracks along the way.
No question, the 67-year-old is one of a kind as well as a perfect fit with the small-market yet big-thinking Brewers.
“I’m just part of the act,” Murphy said. “You want to impact players. I’m hopeful that I can impact a lot of different players in my own little way. But there’s a lot of other coaches on our staff who do that better than I do.
“I get far too much credit for things like this. Players win games.”
Murphy had been a longtime college coach at Notre Dame and Arizona State before joining Craig Counsell’s staff in Milwaukee as bench coach in 2016. He served in that role through the 2023 season, then—somewhat unexpectedly—was named Counsell’s successor after Counsell departed to manage the Cubs that offseason.
Murphy’s previous major league managerial experience consisted of an undistinguished 96-game stint as interim manager of the Padres in 2015, so there were plenty of doubters when he was handed the reins with the Brewers.
But the decision to hire him proved wildly successful. Milwaukee led the Central division almost from wire to wire in 2024, when they won 93 games before being upset by the Mets in the Wild Card Series.
Expectations were running much lower entering 2025, after the Brewers had traded all-star closer Devin Williams and lost slugging shortstop Willy Adames as a free agent. Milwaukee did virtually nothing to add to its roster via free agency.
Myriad injuries in camp added to the “daunt factor,” as Murphy often mused, and an 0-4 start to the season in which Milwaukee was outscored 47-15 did little to engender confidence that the 2025 Brewers would be a team to remember.
They were two games under .500 at the end of May when consecutive sweeps of the Red Sox and Phillies—the latter on the road—got the Brewers back on track. Their pitchers got healthier, young players began performing, and before long Milwaukee was rolling with Murphy continuing to set the tone with his take-no-prisoners attitude.
Winning streaks of eight, 11 and a franchise-record 14 games followed, and by mid August the team was the talk of baseball. Milwaukee’s third straight Central title, and fifth in the last eight years, followed and despite an injury-filled September—its only losing month of the year—it proved to be a regular season for the history books.
“There were so many injuries and so many question marks and so many guys searching for their best self,” Murphy said. “I think what clicked was the resiliency that they had and the desire that they had to get on it as quickly as possible. And while we struggled, we got on it in time and then we got on a roll.
“I don’t think anybody feels like this year they did their best. I think they felt like we were really a team, through and through. We were a little bit better as the year went on. They all kind of committed to each other.
“Just a great group.”
Milwaukee also rid itself of an organizational albatross by beating the Cubs in five games in the NL Division Series for its first postseason series victory since 2018. Then the Brewers ran into the Dodgers buzzsaw and got swept out of the NLCS in four games.
The exit hurt, but the future remains bright as the Brewers juggernaut rolls on with one of the unlikeliest managerial success stories in recent years looking forward to again setting the tone in year three.
“What you have to recognize is the Milwaukee Brewers are committed,” Murphy said. “We had the right ‘who.’ We had guys who were aware and hungry, and it makes the manager look good at the end of the day.”