The Center Of It All: Pat Murphy Wins 3rd Straight National League Manager of the Year Award

[Matthew Trueblood]

Brewers manager Pat Murphy won his third straight National League Manager of the Year Award, Major League Baseball announced on Tuesday night. Murphy's three seasons in Milwaukee are the only full campaigns he's spent at the top step of a big-league dugout, but already, he's made history. In October, he guided the team to its first-ever World Series triumph. Now, he's the first skipper ever to win this award three times in a row. Traditionally, the balloting for Manager of the Year responds to expectations, so once a team is established as a favorite, the person running that club becomes less likely to win. Even winning twice in a row has been vanishingly rare.

Yet, this outcome is unsurprising. In a shockingly short time, Murphy has built a case not only as the best manager in baseball right now—there's very little doubt that he's that, by now—but as one of the best managers in recent memory, and perhaps a future Hall of Famer. After not getting a major-league managerial gig until his mid-60s, he's checked all the major boxes on a Cooperstown résumé, save the longevity. It will be very hard for him to check that final box, of course, but he might be able to sneak into the Hall without doing so. That's the degree of dominance he's shown in his short time in charge of baseball's Little Engine That Could. 

Beyond outperforming expectations, two major factors guide voters for this award in most years:

1. Clear instances of overcoming adversity; and
2. Personality

Murphy excels in both aspects, which is how he's done the previously impossible. The Brewers' expectations remained modest even coming off a trip to the NLCS and a third straight NL Central title in 2025, largely because they traded ace starter Freddy Peralta over the winter and were running a lower-than-average payroll (as always). Murphy then had to navigate a last-second trade of Caleb Durbin (one of his personal favorites) on the eve of spring training and the loss of Quinn Priester for the whole season before it even began. Not long into the campaign, it was clear he'd also be without prized offseason bullpen addition Angel Zerpa (Tommy John surgery) and the very expensive Brandon Woodruff (repeated losses of velocity amid a recurrence of his major shoulder trouble, after he accepted a qualifying offer and a $22-million salary over the winter) most of the time. 

Early hand injuries to Jackson Chourio and Andrew Vaughn forced Murphy to mix and match with his lineup for the first six weeks of the season. Disappointing first halves for Sal Frelick and Joey Ortiz prompted the team to call up rookies Cooper Pratt and Luis Lara, but Murphy had to keep both of hsi slightly more veteran players engaged as he integrated the fresh blood. For most of the season, he had only two truly reliable starting pitchers. One was Jacob Misiorowski. The other was Kyle Harrison in the first half, but Logan Henderson in the second. Otherwise, again, he was left doing ample mixing and matching.

Meanwhile, in addition to being a media darling famous both for his lengthy discussions of the finer points of the game and for his barbs directed at various reporters, Murphy proved a deft manager of the often-volatile personalities within a big-league clubhouse. His approach doesn't work for everyone, but he's shown more flexibility and a greater ability to extract the best from players than many expected when he got the job.

After his first year on the job, the team lost Willy Adames and Devin Williams. After his second, they lost Peralta, Durbin and Isaac Collins. They've had to rewire and restructure the team each year, and the fact that they've remained so consistently excellent over that span is evidence that Murphy plays a greater role in their success than most managers do in that of their own clubs. It was enough to convince the voters, who gave him the edge over NL East skippers Don Mattingly and Walt Weiss.

Image courtesy of Matt Marton-Imagn Images

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[Waunakee]

The Vince Lombardi of Wisconsin baseball

[HarryDoyle]

So it's all downhill from here for Murphy.

[Michael Trzinski]

5 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

So it's all downhill from here for Murphy.

Don't tell Murph that lol.

[keephopealive]

11 hours ago, Waunakee said:

The Vince Lombardi of Wisconsin baseball

Vince got a relatively late start as a head coach as well, as did Harvey Kuenn. They became head coaches at 46 and 51, much younger than Murphy, but both died at 57. Murphy was 64. Harvey looked 64.

[Matthew Trueblood]

42 minutes ago, keephopealive said:

Vince got a relatively late start as a head coach as well, as did Harvey Kuenn. They became head coaches at 46 and 51, much younger than Murphy, but both died at 57. Murphy was 64. Harvey looked 64.

People observe this all the time, but no question, ages just mean totally different things across eras. Murphy looks like what 45-year-old men often looked like, 50 years ago, even as he hurtles toward 70.