Who knows all of the motivations that went into the decision but I wonder if the whole managing the hometown team aspect had turned into a negative for him. Almost every time I heard him talk this season, he did not sound like someone who was having fun. Maybe the weight of not just being the manager, but the local hero who was going to bring a championship to Milwaukee, wore on him. Maybe having to always answer what this or that accomplishment meant as someone who grew up as a fan of the Brewers wore on him. Maybe the "one of us" narrative being used to help sell tickets wore on him. Or maybe it's none of that, maybe it was just the prospect of another year of having a DH anchoring the middle of the order that is someone pulled off the scrap heap. Or maybe it was something else entirely. But the whole thing about him saying in September that his thinking had shifted towards managing in 2024 and perhaps elsewhere sounds to me like he made the realization that it wasn't being a manager that he was unhappy with, it was being the manager of the Brewers that he was unhappy with.