MILWAUKEE — Pat Murphy is reluctant to concede the point, but the manager deserves some credit after a team defies expectations the way his Brewers did in 2024. The young club said “No thanks” to a rebuilding year, made no excuses for injuries, blew past its projected win total and continued the longest run of regular season success in franchise history.
Murphy, who turns 66 on Nov. 28, is the first Brewers manager to win the award, which was first bestowed by the BBWAA in 1983. Seven times since then, a Brewers skipper finished as the runner-up, starting with Tom Trebelhorn in ’87 and Phil Garner in ‘92 when Milwaukee was an American League franchise. Since the Brewers’ move to the NL, Ron Roenicke finished second in 2011, as did Craig Counsell four times — in 2018, ’19, ’21 and ’23.
Murphy, Counsell’s onetime mentor at Notre Dame who became Counsell’s bench coach in Milwaukee from 2016-23 before ascending to the top job after Counsell’s free agent departure last fall, finally became the first Brewers skipper to take home the prize.
“Any award like that is a team award. It’s a staff award,” Murphy said during a visit to Milwaukee this month. “It’s embarrassing even to be mentioned with it. If you love this and you’re passionate about what it means, then those types of things kind of like, don’t fit with what you’re really all about.
“It’s, keep your head down. Try to impact people. Try to help any way you can, move the ball forward and then get back in the huddle and put your head down and button your chin strap and do it again. Let somebody else measure the impact years from now.”