Now a World Champion, a More Trusting Pat Murphy Makes More History

For the third season in a row, the Baseball Writers Association of America named Pat Murphy the National League Manager of the Year. Murphy became the first manager to win the award in three consecutive seasons and the 10th manager to win at least three times.

It wasn't surprising. Murphy led a Brewers team that once again outperformed external expectations, this time with the greatest season in franchise history. Milwaukee won a franchise-best 103 games in the regular season, then breezed to its first World Series title with an 11-2 postseason.

"With his 'win tonight' approach, Pat Murphy led our club to another historic season and the first World Series championship in franchise history," president of baseball operations and general manager Matt Arnold said in a statement. "His leadership has played a tremendous role in our success, and this third consecutive Manager of the Year Award is a well-deserved recognition of everything he means to our organization."

Of the honors bestowed during baseball's award season, Manager of the Year may be the least precise. It's effectively the Outperforming External Expectations Award, and the manager is merely a fraction of that equation. A mediocre manager with a great roster and coaching staff will win games, and a great manager with poor personnel around him will lose games. Murphy knows that. Each time he's won the award, he has quickly redirected the spotlight to those around him.

"The last three clubs that we've had, they've all been different, but there's a common theme between them and what they stand for," Murphy said. "Some of those players and some of those coaches deserve a lot of credit, so I'm not going to take too much time to reflect on myself."

In Murphy's case, though, the threepeat reflects his success in unifying a large, diverse group of people around a common goal. Whether he'll admit it or not, he has imparted his character onto those three Brewers teams, and it's been integral to their success.

Fittingly, Murphy accepted the award from a hospital bed the day after undergoing right hip replacement surgery. Between hip and back issues, he managed through debilitating pain without missing a game. Under Murphy's aggressive management style, the Brewers, too, powered through adversity, scratching and clawing until the final out of the World Series. Murphy establishes and enforces strict standards. His players bought in, meeting those standards while regularly repeating his mantras and analogies in the clubhouse.

"One of the things that stuck out for me this year is that you do have to have a belief system," Murphy said. "We can all worry about bad outcomes, but can you train your brain? That's the thing. Can you train your brain to stay in that 'win tonight' attitude and not waste time worrying about things that you might not be able to control and have that belief?"

That belief was the missing component during the Brewers' previous playoff runs. Jake Bauers acknowledged last month that they felt overmatched in last year's NLCS, when the Dodgers swept them in four games. This time, the Brewers expected to win the World Series, and they refused to relent until they hoisted the Commissioner's Trophy at Tropicana Field.

Murphy was part of that turnaround. Before this year's rematch with the Dodgers, he reflected on his ill-fated attempt the previous October to motivate his players by painting them as underdogs. He dropped that messaging after it inadvertently laid the groundwork for the sweep.

"I'm sorry I played that underdog card," Murphy said. "I probably shouldn't have played that and used that as an excuse for why we didn't play well. No, I don't care who the underdog is. I don't care who the favorite is. It's about getting in the ring and fighting it out. That's what it's about. We've proven during the season once again that we can win baseball games."

The Brewers kept winning until there were no more games. Along the way, Murphy learned to place greater trust in their young core.

"One of the big things is you have to trust your players, no matter how young," he said. "You have to trust Cooper Pratt. You have to trust him. When he senses you trust him, he's going to play better."

Murphy has also adapted to an evolving coaching staff, learning to trust his colleagues and consolidate information from several baseball minds with different perspectives and approaches.

"I'm not easy to work for, and it's probably designed that way," Murphy said. "It's really a continual exercise in taking their information, letting them know what you want, having them add their creativity in the way they coach, trying to find both strengths and weaknesses in what they do, and then trying to dissect what's the best way, what are the best job descriptions to help them help our team and help our players."

Murphy is not the sole engine of the Brewers' success. It's a group effort that spans all levels of the organization. But he's become the face of the best team in baseball and sets the tone for them every day. A third straight Manager of the Year Award is well-deserved recognition.

"The couple weeks have been, again, something to be really thankful for," he said.

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