The Pirates are expected to hire Astros pitching coach Bill Murphy for the same position, reports Chandler Rome of The Athletic. Pittsburgh had a vacancy after former pitching coach Oscar Marin did not have his contract renewed. Assistant pitching coach Brent Strom is also not returning to the team.
Murphy has been a coach in Houston’s organization since 2016. He was first hired as a pitching coach for Rookie-level Greeneville. Murphy moved up to Single-A Tri-City in 2017, then to Double-A Corpus Christi the following season. He became an assistant pitching coach with the big league club in 2021, coincidentally working underneath Strom (then Houston’s pitching coach) in his first season. Strom stepped down at the end of that year, so Houston elevated Murphy and Josh Miller to co-pitching coach positions.
Houston’s pitching staff hadn’t missed a beat after Strom’s departure. They lead MLB with a 3.61 earned run average over the past four seasons. Only the Braves have a higher strikeout rate over that stretch. They dropped to 11th in ERA this year but led MLB with a 24.9% strikeout percentage. No team got more swinging strikes.
The Astros already had an excellent pitching staff by the time that Murphy and Miller took the lead positions. Hunter Brown’s emergence as an ace has come under their tutelage, however. The Astros navigated various injuries on the pitching staff over the past few years, with the likes of J.P. France, Ronel Blanco and Jason Alexander each turning in a solid or better season in that time.
Murphy gets to work with an arguably even more talented group of arms in Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes is one of the few pitchers in baseball who is better than Brown. Bubba Chandler, Braxton Ashcraft and Mike Burrows might all be in the Opening Day rotation, while Jared Jones could be back from elbow surgery in the second half. Mitch Keller has tailed off late after stellar first halves in three straight years. He’s unlikely to turn into an ace at age 30, but it’d be a boon for the Bucs if they can get him to sustain his #2/3 caliber production for an entire season.
The Astros will now need to decide whether to turn the full-time job to Miller or hire a new co-pitching coach. They’re already revamping their offensive instruction after moving on from co-hitting coaches Alex Cintrón and Troy Snitker.
Seems like a pretty good hire.
Hope he can get that Skenes kid turned around.
I think he’s doing OK right now. But then again, I am no expert. His lsu teammate dylan crews needs turning around.
It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a Bill now.
Why do the Blue Jays keep pitching to Ohtani?
lol. They stopped
Really thought uncle ray was coming back
At first I thought it said they hired Bill Murray. But then I realized I was Lost in Translation.
@another
Don’t feel bad I did the same thing, maybe they might still hire to be the groundskeeper.
He was brilliant in Rushmore.
An excellent addition.
I didn’t think teams were allowed to poach each other like that unless they offered the new hire a promotion. Does that only apply to front office people and not the coaching staff, or does going from co-pitching coach to pitching coach qualify as a promotion?
I’d say going from co-pitching coach to pitching coach is a promotion.
In exit interviews it seems the pitchers felt that Marin did not relate well to them. This guy is young, supposedly relates well and has shown success in Houston. I would be interested in knowing how much input Kelly had in this hire. Hopefully the young Pirates pitchers continue to develop under Murphy, but without some offense they can continue to lose by 1-0 or 2-0 scores.
The Pirates will likely see improved pitching and possibly (probably) increased injury. It seemed like the Astros could make almost anybody effective for a short amount of time till they went down with injury. Perhaps it was more on the training staff than the pitching coach?
Guess it makes sense having Bill Murphy report to Pittsburgh. Over and over, day after day, same outcome. “Okay campers, rise and shine, it’s groundhog day! And don’t forget your booties cuz it’s cold out there!”
now that the pitching coach has been decided, do something about the hitting staff
They could resurrect Charley Lau and it wouldn’t matter with this cast of characters. I mean seriously, just how much can a hitting coach get out of players at this level? Unlike high school or legion ball, you can’t break down any of these guys completely and start over. And for too many here, that’s what it would take
I do like this hire, however.
Maybe Nutting has had some great awakening and will go out and throw some serious money at guys like Scott K put forth on another thread
It’s nice to dream
change your name again Washed?
No, I’ve had this one for a few months now. Ask Mendoza and Dream. I even wrote the password down this time.
Paul-I verify that washed up old timer is now out of the federal witness protection program and can be henceforth referred to as Old Timer.
He was born as Tired Old Dude and has had many aliases in the interim.
You and I have been the only old timers to keep our original names.
I have the solution to the pirates hitting woes.
Start from scratch. Make the hitters use a tee ball with the ball be made to look like nutty nutting and cherry tree cherrington.
Cruz would still find a way to strike out
The Pirates are going to be a Cinderella story.
You mean lead the NL Central until about June and then turn into a giant pumpkin?
Can he hit?