The Milwaukee Brewers have officially hired their next manager.
Not long after feeling the keen sting of Craig Counsell's departure for the nearby Chicago Cubs, the Brewers have promoted bench coach Pat Murphy to the lead managerial role, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
Murphy has a long history intertwined with Counsell, who will now become his primary division rival. Murphy coached Counsell at Notre Dame and spent over two decades, from 1988 to 2009, as a collegiate head coach between the Fighting Irish and the Arizona State Sun Devils.
Eventually, Murphy made the move to the majors. He coached as part of the San Diego Padres' farm system in the early 2010s and was appointed interim manager in 2015 when Bud Black was fired. Later that year, he signed on with the Brewers as Counsell's bench coach — an old master rejoining his protégé, in a sense.
Brewers officially promote Pat Murphy to fill Craig Counsell's void as manager
The Milwaukee job comes with a certain stigma. The Brewers' front office has been notoriously stingy on the financial front, often allowing important pieces to walk in favor of a slender cap sheet. It can be difficult to win at the highest level under such circumstances, which precipitated Counsell's desire to seek a "new challenge" with the arch-rival Cubs.
Still, Counsell did one heck of a job in Milwuakee, and Murphy was his right-hand man the whole way. It's generally smart to hire coaches who have been around greatness. It's why Bill Belichick and Gregg Popovich have so many former assistants coaching at the highest level of their sports.
Murphy is unique, of course, in that he coached Counsell before Counsell's career took off. Counsell enjoyed a successful playing career long before the Brewers made him skipper, and one has to believe Murphy left an indelible mark on the young infielder. For a long-tenured college coach to end up working under his former player in the big leagues is a unique sequence of events.
The Brewers will hope that Counsell's magic rubs off on Murphy, or that whatever Murphy taught Counsell translates to the lead job. He doesn't have a ton of managerial experience in the MLB, but Murphy led college clubhouses for 21 years. He has been around the game for a while.
Milwaukee won 92 games last season and finished nine games ahead of Chicago in the National League Central. The rosters will look different next season, but Milwaukee fans would love nothing more than for Murphy to author a repeat in his first campaign as the skipper.
