How Pat Murphy and His Coaching Staff Construct Brewers' Lineup

[Jack Stern]

It's a question with no definitive answer: What's the best way to order a lineup, and does it even matter? Here's how Pat Murphy and the Brewers approach it.

Image courtesy of © Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

Two evergreen sources of baseball debate are bullpen management and lineup construction. Show enough people a lineup card, and you're sure to field passionate arguments that Player X should be hitting fifth instead of third, or second instead of seventh.

The sabermetric consensus is that batting order does not dramatically influence scoring over a 162-game season. In large samples, it's who is in the lineup that matters, not where they are hitting. The Brewers' skipper believes that lineup construction matters, but he tries not to overthink things.

Here was how Pat Murphy lined things up when the Brewers faced a right-handed starter for the first time in the 2025 regular season:

1. Brice Turang
2. Jackson Chourio
3. Christian Yelich
4. William Contreras
5. Sal Frelick
6. Jake Bauers
7. Garrett Mitchell
8. Joey Ortiz
9. Oliver Dunn

The bottom of the order shifted a bit on Tuesday, with Hoskins back in at first base, Mitchell receiving a day off, and Contreras sliding to DH, but the first five spots remained the same. The framework was unchanged.

Murphy's starting point is simple.

"I think your best hitters hit the most," he said, citing the possibility of one extra plate appearance for some of those players if the batting order turns over a fifth time late in a game. "(Who) you qualify as 'best hitters' (are) guys that have the combination of being able to get on base and do damage and not leave the zone at the same time. So they're on base a lot, they can do damage, or they're extreme at one of those – extreme on base, (reaching) second base."

To Murphy, the players he typically pencils atop his lineup fit those molds. Turang's career .305 on-base percentage puts him toward the bottom of Brewers hitters, but Murphy believes in his skill set and especially values his base-stealing ability. If Turang bats with the bases empty and no outs, reaches on a walk or single, and steals second base, that sequence is materially the same as hitting a double. Chourio and Yelich boast power and speed, and Contreras has the raw power of a cleanup hitter.

From there, Murphy gets a bit more creative. Frelick bats ahead of Rhys Hoskins (or, on Sunday, Bauers) in the five-hole and often batted before traditional middle-of-the-order power threats last year. That's because Murphy is playing the numbers, which say the fifth spot frequently leads off an inning.

"The five-hole hitter leads off more than any other position except the one-hole over a season," he explained. "Statistically, that's what they've figured out."

It would be easier to opt for a traditional slugger in the five-hole, Murphy added, if the Brewers had more bona fide power bats. They don't, so he views treating it as a second leadoff spot as the best way to set up beneficial sequences for his offense.

"If you don't have that typical damage guy, [the five hitter is] another good hitter, one of your five best hitters, a combination of all we talk about, but also might have to lead off a bunch and [is] not a base-clogger," Murphy said. "That's kind of what I'm thinking with this year's group."

Finally, Murphy tries to stagger the handedness of his hitters to avoid reliever-friendly matchup pockets and limit unfavorable exposure for his hitters. (The left-handed trio of Frelick, Bauers, and Mitchell was an exception, because Hoskins could pinch-hit. Bauers's spot between the two outfielders was a trap laid for Yankees manager Aaron Boone, though obviously, that didn't come into play in the course of that particular game.) That practice predates his time as manager—Craig Counsell emphasized it for years—and is now a common tactic.

He referred to the Brewers' current opponent, the Kansas City Royals.

"They got a kid over there, for instance, [Ángel] Zerpa, that is really good against lefties. So you want to kind of not stack it so they have that advantage."

There may be additional nuances to consider nightly, but adherence to those three principles builds the framework Murphy and his staff use in most games. Above all else, he wants his best hitters to receive as many opportunities as possible and allow the game to unfold in a way that matches his lineup's strengths.

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[Michael Trzinski]

Murph has got to start talking in complete sentences...lol. You are gonna wear out your [] keys. 😅