Yahoo Sports senior MLB analyst Jordan Shusterman and Jake Mintz react to Pat Murphy’s extension with the Milwaukee Brewers. Hear the full conversation on the “Baseball Bar-B-Cast” podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
View more
Advertisement
Video Transcript
Pat Murphy, ever heard of him?
The back-to-back Manager of the Year.
Pat Murphy, of course, a, a legendary career as a, as a college coach, then spends a long time in the minors, eventually gets elevated to Major League manager with the Milwaukee Brewers.
And now, after two tremendously successful years at the helm, taking over for Craig Counsell, he receives a contract extension, three-year contract, almost $9 million in new money.
He is one of the highest-paid managers in baseball.
Now, I’m struggling with this to talk about the Brewers, because at this point, clearly Murph is, he’s certainly not hurting matters in Milwaukee.
Advertisement
I think he has managed to kind of cultivate a leadership figure and kind of an energy and a mentality with this group that has clearly worked.
And how many of their, their 96 wins or whatever it was last year, deserve to be his credit?
Who’s to say, but it has been very cool to see an era of Brewers baseball that was first kind of defined by, like, kind of the silent assassin tactician that was Craig Counsell, and is now just the opposite, this boisterous personality that is Pat Murphy.
And for that, I am- I have, certainly enjoyed, since he has become a main character in Major League Baseball.
And I do think it is compelling within the context of, like, a growing frustration within Brewer land, that the Brewers are not going for it, or they are constantly cycling through players.
Advertisement
And I think that absolutely behind the scenes, Pat Murphy is frustrated about that dynamic.
Obviously, he wanted to keep Freddy Peralta and Caleb Durbin and co. and whoever, but he understands the realities of this job, and, you know, it’s as good of a setup as he’s going to get, and that’s part of why he signed an extension.
Like, not every job is perfect, and I do think that Murphy is the perfect person to lead this particular operation, to get the guys that are still around, that were not traded away, to believe in the process.
He is, above all, a stellar salesman, and I imagine will continue to succeed at that in Milwaukee moving forward.