MILWAUKEE – Brewers manager Pat Murphy insisted all year long it was not about him, but here’s some recognition he cannot dodge: He’s one of three finalists for the NL Manager of the Year Award, giving the 66-year-old a chance to be only the third man in either league to win that honor in back-to-back seasons.
Bobby Cox was the first, taking home NL Manager of the Year honors with the Braves in 2004 and '05. Then Kevin Cash was similarly honored in the AL in 2020 and '21.
Now there’s a chance for Murphy, a finalist with the Reds’ Terry Francona and Rob Thomson of the Phillies, to join that exclusive club after he won the NL honor in 2024, making Murphy the first Brewers skipper to be named manager of the year by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Murphy is one of two Brewers up for BBWAA awards, and the other is one of his favorite players, 5-foot-7 infielder Caleb Durbin, who is one of three finalists for the NL Rookie of the Year Award with Braves catcher Drake Baldwin and Cubs right-hander Cade Horton.
Winners will be announced Nov. 10 (Rookie of the Year) and Nov. 11 (Manager) on MLB Network.
It’s a good Brewers duo, because the admiration is mutual.
“I think that the word that comes to my mind is just ‘free.’ Playing for Murph allows you to be free because he wants you to be who you are,” Durbin said. “And there's a really good combination of, he's holding you to a certain standard that he's going to make you play a certain style of baseball that he thinks is the right way, but he also wants you to be yourself and play your game.
“And he believes in every single person individually and believes in us as a team. I think we definitely feel that in the clubhouse when your leader, the guy that's at the head of the table, is the right person and believes in all of us. It takes a lot of pressure off of us, I think.”
Both Murphy and Durbin played a memorable role in the Brewers’ record-setting, 97-win regular season, Murphy keeping the clubhouse calm while the team endured a slow start, and Durbin providing the two-out hit in Pittsburgh during the final week of May that got them going. Durbin’s tying double in the eighth inning sent the Brewers to the first victory of an eight-game winning streak, which was followed by an 11-game winning streak in July and a club-record 14-game winning streak in August.
And those winning sprees, in turn, led to a third straight NL Central title for the Brewers, who were projected before the season for a win total in the mid-80s. Murphy’s clubs have bucked the computer models in each of his two seasons at the helm.
“What you see is what you get from Murph,” said Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold. “He brings an intensity. He brings a relentless approach. He cares so much about the people in the room and winning that it's infectious. It really is.
“I think it's been tremendous because it's become part of our fabric. Even when we go through tough parts of our season like we did at the start, Murph was there continuing to challenge the group, and I think that means a lot. There are a lot of teams, I think, that could have potentially gone the other direction, and again, a huge credit to Murph for keeping us on the right path.”
Murphy would credit his players, like Durbin, who came to Milwaukee last December along with left-hander Nestor Cortes in the trade that sent All-Star closer Devin Williams to the Bronx. Durbin didn’t make Milwaukee’s Opening Day roster but was in the Majors before the end of April, and helped stabilize third base by hitting .256/.334/.387 with 11 home runs and 60 RBIs.
Only Baldwin delivered more wins above replacement by the FanGraphs calculation than Durbin, 3.1 fWAR to 2.6 fWAR, with Horton at 2.2 fWAR. Baldwin topped Durbin in each of the three slash line categories and hit 19 home runs with 56 RBIs.
Durbin is bidding to become the Brewers’ fourth Rookie of the Year Award winner. Pat Listach won in the AL in 1992 before Ryan Braun (2007) and Williams (2020) won in the NL.
For Durbin, the trade sent him to the perfect spot.
“I definitely did a little bit of studying on who my teammates were going to be,” he said. “It did look like it was a lot of guys who had a similar skill set to what I brought to the table, which is really exciting for me because I knew I was going to learn a ton from them, and it was going to help me grow my skill set even more.”