Add Pat Murphy to the Mets' list of managerial candidates.
The current Brewers bench coach has reportedly conducted multiple interviews with the club, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The Mets have also previously held or plan to hold second interviews with Carlos Beltrán, Tim Bogar, Eduardo Pérez, Luis Rojas and Derek Shelton. Meanwhile, Andy Martino of SNY Network added that Murphy is "not the only mystery candidate in the mix."
Murphy, who had head coaching experience at the collegiate level, has served as Milwaukee's bench coach under Craig Counsell since the 2016 season. Murphy was the head coach at Notre Dame during Counsell's playing days for the Fighting Irish.
After guiding Notre Dame to a .732 winning percentage from 1988-94, Murphy was hired as the head coach at Arizona State prior to the 1995 season. He coached the Sun Devils for 15 years, leading them to four College World Series appearances. Murphy won Baseball America's Coach of the Year Award in 1998 and was named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year four times.
His wildly successful tenure at Arizona State came to an abrupt end when he resigned in November 2009 in the midst of an NCAA investigation. Though the NCAA ultimately found Murphy innocent of possible recruiting violations and student-athlete employment concerns, it did reprimand Murphy for his treatment of his investigators. The NCAA also faulted the athletics departent for a lack of institutional control, resulting in the baseball program being sanctioned and banned from postseason play in 2012 as a result of Arizona State's athletics department being a repeat offender.
Four months after resigning from ASU, Murphy was hired by the Padres as a special assistant to baseball operations in February 2010. He served as a manager for various Minor League affiliates in San Diego's system from 2011-15, before taking over as the Padres' interim skipper after Bud Black was fired in June '15.
The Padres did not retain Murphy following the season, allowing him to join Counsell's staff as the Brewers' bench coach.