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Pat Murphy

Stephen Vogt, Pat Murphy Win Manager Of The Year

By Anthony Franco | November 19, 2024 at 11:20pm CDT

The Baseball Writers Association of America announced that Guardians’ skipper Stephen Vogt and Brewers’ manager Pat Murphy were named the respective leagues’ Managers of the Year.

Both men took the award after leading their teams to Central division titles in year one. Vogt took the reins for the Guardians within a year and a half of retiring as a player. He spent one season on Seattle’s staff as bullpen coach before Cleveland tabbed him to replace future Hall of Famer Terry Francona. Vogt took over a team that had a much weaker rotation than the Guardians customarily sport, especially after Shane Bieber went down two starts into the season.

Expectations outside the organization generally weren’t very high. Cleveland nevertheless ran away with the AL Central. They built a lead as big as nine games by the end of June and didn’t look back. The Guardians cruised to a 92-win season, taking 16 more games than they had in 2023. They outscored opponents by 87 runs, largely on the strength of an elite bullpen. Vogt’s relief group easily led the majors with a 2.57 earned run average. The Guardians nabbed the #2 seed in the American League to secure a first-round bye.

Awards voting occurs before the start of the postseason, so the playoffs weren’t a factor in these honors. Cleveland held serve by defeating the upstart Tigers in the Division Series. They dropped a five-game set to the top-seeded Yankees in the Championship Series. While it didn’t end as hoped, it was a much more successful season than most people envisioned.

Vogt rather handily won the support of voters. He nabbed 27 of the 30 first-place selections. Kansas City’s Matt Quatraro and Detroit’s A.J. Hinch were the only others to receive a first-place vote in the America League. Quatraro and Hinch finished second and third, respectively. Joe Espada, Aaron Boone, Mark Kotsay, Rocco Baldelli and Alex Cora all appeared on at least one ballot.

The story was much the same in the National League. Murphy was in his first year at the helm. Like Vogt, he took over for one of the sport’s most respected managers. Craig Counsell departed to sign with the Cubs, leaving Murphy in charge of a dugout for the first time since an interim stint with the Padres in 2015. As with Cleveland, Milwaukee’s formerly vaunted rotation had been thinned by injury and trades.

The Brewers got success out of unheralded starters Tobias Myers and Colin Rea. Their bullpen was arguably the best in the National League. Despite losing Devin Williams for the first half of the season, Milwaukee relievers led the NL with a 3.11 ERA that trailed only Cleveland’s mark overall. The Brewers outscored opponents by 136 runs to post a 93-69 record. They essentially replicated their results from Counsell’s final season and grabbed their third NL Central title in four years.

Milwaukee’s year ended with a bitter defeat. Williams’ blown save against the Mets in the Wild Card round left them with a first-round exit for the second straight year. That’s not a factor in the voting, of course, and it’s not as if anyone would fault Murphy for turning to his star closer in that situation anyhow.

 

Murphy rather remarkably becomes the first Brewers’ manager to win the award. Counsell has surprisingly never won that honor. As with Vogt, Murphy took 27 of 30 first-place spots. San Diego’s Mike Shildt, New York’s Carlos Mendoza and Philadelphia’s Rob Thomson each picked up one first-place nod. Shildt and Mendoza placed second and third, respectively. Torey Lovullo landed in fourth overall, while Thomson rounded out the top five. Brian Snitker, Dave Roberts and Oli Marmol also received votes.

Full voter breakdowns courtesy of the BBWAA.

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MLB Announces Suspensions For Rays-Brewers Brawl

By Darragh McDonald | May 1, 2024 at 2:55pm CDT

2:55pm: Rays manager Kevin Cash said after today’s game that Siri’s suspension was reduced to two games and he already started serving it, per Topkin.

1:05pm: Major League Baseball announced several suspensions today in relation to last night’s confrontation between the Rays and the Brewers. Milwaukee right-handers Freddy Peralta and Abner Uribe got suspensions of five and six games, respectively. Their manager Pat Murphy got a two-game suspension. Outfielder Jose Siri of the Rays got three games. All four parties also received undisclosed fines.

Murphy is serving his suspension starting today but both of the Milwaukee hurlers are appealing, per Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Siri will also be appealing his suspension, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.

Siri homered off Peralta in the third inning and then was plunked by Peralta in the sixth. The umpires conferred and ejected Peralta, despite the fact that no warnings had been issued in the game to that point. Murphy objected to the ejection and he was also ejected.

Siri came up again in the eighth with Uribe pitching. Siri hit a grounder to Rhys Hoskins at first base, who flipped the ball to Uribe as he covered first and recorded the out. Siri and Uribe exchanged words by first base before Uribe took a swipe at Siri. The two tried throwing punches towards each other as various parties tried to intervene with the benches emptying. Both were ejected after the fracas died down.

Adam McCalvy and Adam Berry of MLB.com spoke to the relevant parties after the game and relayed some natural differences of opinion about what transpired. Crew chief Chris Guccione said the umpires thought it was “clear-cut” that Peralta intentionally threw at Siri, though the pitcher denied it. “How many homers did I give up in seven years? A lot, and I never did something after,” Peralta said. “It’s my first time I got ejected from a game in seven seasons and there’s no reason for me to hit him.”

For his part, Siri denied that he celebrated his home run in any outlandish way. “I didn’t take too much time,” Siri said through Rays interpreter Manny Navarro. “I hit the ball, took a couple of steps and then I started running like normal.”

As for the later incident at first base, Uribe had this to say: “There were some words shared that didn’t have much to do with the game that probably shouldn’t have been shared there in that exchange.”

His sparring partner described it thusly: “When I went to first base, I just went there normal, and he kind of hit me on the shoulder,” Siri said. “So I asked him why did he do that? And he just said, ‘Because I felt like it.’”

As mentioned, Murphy is serving his suspension immediately while the players are all appealing. Their suspensions will be held in abeyance until the appeal process is complete, though players in this situation will often drop an appeal at a convenient time, such as when they were planning to have an unrelated day off.

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Brewers Name Pat Murphy Manager

By Nick Deeds | November 15, 2023 at 3:30pm CDT

November 15: The Brewers officially announced Murphy’s hiring today.

November 13: The Brewers appear to have settled on their new manager. Milwaukee is expected to promote longtime bench coach Pat Murphy, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Murphy will replace longtime manager Craig Counsell after his departure to the Cubs.

Milwaukee’s managerial search proved to be a short one, ultimately concluding just one week after Counsell officially departed for Chicago. In that time, the Brewers reportedly considered several candidates in addition to Murphy during the short process, including Blue Jays bench coach Don Mattingly, Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough, 14-year MLB veteran Rickie Weeks and Astros hitting coach Troy Snitker.

Their reported list of candidates also included a pair of names attached to the other managerial vacancies around the league at the time: Astros then-bench coach Joe Espada, who has since been promoted to the managerial gig in Houston, as well as Padres senior advisor Mike Shildt, who is considered a potential favorite to replace Bob Melvin in San Diego. Ultimately, the Brewers decided to go with Murphy, who many around the game had speculated could consider joining Counsell as bench coach in Chicago if not promoted in Milwaukee.

Murphy, 64, has never been formally hired for the manager’s role with a big league organization but has plenty of experience managing in baseball nonetheless. He ran the Padres for 96 games on an interim basis in 2015 after Bud Black was dismissed that June. Murphy also spent more than 20 years as a head coach in college baseball for Arizona State and Notre Dame. Now, he’ll get his first proper managerial opportunity in the major leagues, stepping into Counsell’s shoes in the Milwaukee dugout after the pair worked closely for eight seasons.

He’ll inherit a roster that figures to be in flux this offseason. Though the Brewers won 92 games and an NL Central crown in 2023 en route to their fifth playoff appearance in the past six seasons, Counsell’s departure combined with the impending free agencies of ace right-hander Corbin Burnes and shortstop Willy Adames have Milwaukee’s front office potentially contemplating major changes to the roster. Further complicating the club’s offseason plans is the status of Burnes’s fellow ace Brandon Woodruff, who underwent shoulder surgery earlier in the offseason and is expected to miss most or perhaps even all of the 2024 season, though he hopes to be back sometime next summer.

Tumultuous as the coming offseason might be, the outlook in Milwaukee isn’t entirely bleak. Outfielder Jackson Chourio is widely considered one of the top two prospects in the entire sport. The club’s farm system sports three other top 100 prospects per MLB Pipeline. Those prospects could help to supplement a core of quality players at the big league level that includes catcher William Contreras, right-hander Freddy Peralta, closer Devin Williams, and outfielders Christian Yelich and Garrett Mitchell, among others. Even if Burnes and Adames are dealt this offseason, the club has the pieces to remain competitive in a relatively weak NL Central division if they choose to supplement the roster rather than engage in a larger teardown.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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Milwaukee Brewers Newsstand Pat Murphy

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Latest On Brewers’ Managerial Vacancy

By Darragh McDonald | November 7, 2023 at 2:31pm CDT

The Brewers are suddenly looking for a manager for the first time in almost a decade, with Craig Counsell’s stunning move to the Cubs yesterday. Some of the options they are considering as a replacement, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, are current Brewers bench coach Pat Murphy, Blue Jays bench coach Don Mattingly, Astros Bench coach Joe Espada, Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough, Astros hitting coach Troy Snitker and former player Rickie Weeks.

Counsell departing Milwaukee wasn’t totally unforeseen. He was on an expiring contract in 2023 and extension talks didn’t come to fruition. But with David Stearns moving on from the Brewers to become president of baseball operations for the Mets and then firing manager Buck Showalter, many assumed Counsell would follow him to Queens. But Counsell joining the division-rival Cubs was not foreseen or known to be on the table.

Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio spoke on the matter yesterday, per Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and it seems he was surprised as well. “When he first told me, I said, ‘Are you messing with me?’” Attanasio added that “It is what it is” and that the club intends to continue putting their best foot forward without Counsell. “We have a really good thing. I give Craig credit for helping to build that, and for adding all these coaches, all of whom have stayed. So we’re going to look for a manager who can continue having a terrific clubhouse culture and that can help us keep winning and hopefully get over the hump in the playoffs.”

As for the Mets, despite the generally spendthrift behavior of Steve Cohen in recent years, they apparently never got close to the $40MM over five years that Counsell secured from the Cubs. Per Andy Martino of SNY, there was a sense that his interest in coming to the Mets wasn’t actually that high and he was merely using them to drive up the bidding. That would track with his reported interest in resetting the market for managerial salaries. Perhaps he wasn’t especially willing to do that in Queens since he grew up in the Midwest and Chicago is a better fit for him, or perhaps the Mets were content to hire a manager with lesser demands, but the end result is that the Mets landed first-time manager Carlos Mendoza instead.

As for the Brewers’ immediate concerns in relation to this, though it may sting that Counsell joined a division rival instead of the Mets, the focus now will be on filling the void. It seems they weren’t terribly proactive while Counsell was still available, with Attanasio stating that he and general manager Matt Arnold “thought it was going to muddy things if we started interviews with third parties” but that Arnold has “conducted a couple of internal interviews, for what that’s worth.” That suggests they are still in the early stages of their search, with still a wide list of potential candidates being considered, as mentioned above.

Murphy, 65 this month, has a small amount of managerial experience. He was in the Padres’ organization in June of 2015 when Bud Black was fired as manager. Murphy got the gig on an interim basis for the second half of that season but Andy Green took over for the 2016 campaign. Murphy then came to the Brewers to serve as bench coach under Counsell and has garnered plenty of interest from clubs with managerial openings since, but has stayed in Milwaukee.

Mattingly, 63 in April, has plenty of experience as a bench boss. He was at the helm for the Dodgers from 2011 to 2015 and then for the Marlins from 2016 to 2022, before joining the Blue Jays as bench coach for the 2023 season.

Espada, 48, has coaching experience with the Marlins and Yankees but has been the bench coach of the Astros since the start of the 2018 season. He has been connected to various managerial gigs in the past few years but is still with the Astros, who just saw Dusty Baker step out of the skipper’s chair. It’s been speculated that Espada could take over in Houston but nothing is official there.

McCullough, 44 next month, has been the first base coach of the Dodgers since the 2021 campaign. He recently interviewed for the managerial opening in Cleveland but that position has now been filled by Stephen Vogt.

Snitker, 35 next month, is the son of Atlanta manager Brian Snitker. He has been co-hitting coach for the Astros for the past five seasons alongside Álex Cintrón.

Weeks, 41, played in the majors from 2003 to 2017, most of that in Milwaukee. He was hired by the Brewers for a player development role going into the 2022 season.

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Chicago Cubs Houston Astros Los Angeles Dodgers Milwaukee Brewers Toronto Blue Jays Clayton McCullough Craig Counsell Don Mattingly Joe Espada Pat Murphy Rickie Weeks Troy Snitker

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Brewers Add Quintin Berry To Coaching Staff

By Steve Adams | November 4, 2020 at 2:22pm CDT

The Brewers announced their 2021 coaching staff Wednesday, which includes a new but familiar name: former big league outfielder Quintin Berry. He’ll take the place of longtime third base coach Ed Sedar, who is transitioning from the dugout to a new role as an advisor to the Major League coaching staff.

Berry, 35, recently wrapped up a 13-year career as an outfielder — one that included parts of five seasons in the Majors. The speedster was a frequent late-season pickup for playoff hopefuls seeking a pinch-running specialist. He logged 94 games with the 2012 Tigers as a rookie but never came close to that mark again, ultimately wrapping up his time in the Majors with a .262/.333/.364 slash with 29 steals in 31 tries over the course of 132 games.

Berry also played in parts of 13 minor league seasons, hitting .257/.350/.327 with a whopping 399 steals. The last of those 13 seasons came in the Brewers organization in 2018, and he’s since been working as a minor league outfield and baserunning coordinator with the Brewers organization.

The rest of the coaching staff will look familiar to Brewers fans. Pat Murphy returns for a sixth season as Craig Counsell’s bench coach. Jason Lane will be one of the two base coaches along with Berry — their specific base designation has not yet been specified. Hitting coach Andy Haines, pitching coach Chris Hook and bullpen coach Steve Karsay are all returning for their third years on the staff. Assistant hitting coach Jacob Cruz is back for a second season, and the Brewers are also returning Walker McKinven as their associate pitching, catching and strategy coach.

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Milwaukee Brewers Chris Hook Craig Counsell Pat Murphy Quintin Berry Steve Karsay

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Mets Reportedly Narrow Managerial Search

By Steve Adams | November 1, 2019 at 12:49pm CDT

The Mets’ managerial search is down to two names, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports (via Twitter). Former Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran and former Astros bench coach/current ESPN analyst Eduardo Perez are the last two men standing. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman recently tweeted that Milwaukee bench coach Pat Murphy was out of the running, though Heyman suggested shortly before Feinsand that Twins bench coach Derek Shelton was still involved alongside Beltran and Perez.

Neither Beltran nor Perez has any big league managerial experience, but Perez did manage a pair of winter ball clubs in Puerto Rico and managed Team Colombia in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. In addition to a brief stint as the bench coach in Houston, Perez spent a pair of seasons as the Marlins’ hitting coach earlier this decade. Beltran, who only retired as a player after the 2017 season, has spent his short post-playing days as a special advisor to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman.

Hiring Perez would, in many ways, mimic the crosstown Yankees’ hiring of Aaron Boone and the Cubs’ recent hiring of David Ross. Both were retired players hired away from ESPN jobs, though Perez, unlike that duo, does have the aforementioned coaching/managing experience. Beltran, notably, would jump from player to manager even more quickly than Ross did — if he is indeed hired. Ross retired after winning a World Series in 2016, while Beltran retired after winning a World Series in 2017. Perez was reported by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale last week to be the “clear front-runner,” but the search then carried on into a third round of interviews.

The Mets’ managerial search has dragged out even longer than the GM search that led the organization to hire then-CAA-agent Brodie Van Wagenen late last October. While a whopping eight teams entered the offseason in search of a new skipper, most identified a smaller set of initial candidates than New York. The Mets, meanwhile, not only conducted first-round interviews with a wide slate of candidates, they also carried a significant list of hopefuls all the way into a third round of interviews. (Most other organizations seemingly only went through two rounds.) At least five candidates — Perez, Beltran, Shelton, Murphy and Nats first base coach Tim Bogar — seemingly advanced to this stage.

The Mets, Pirates and Giants are the three remaining clubs that have yet to name a manager for the 2020 season. The Angels (Joe Maddon), Phillies (Joe Girardi), Cubs (Ross), Royals (Mike Matheny) and Padres (Jayce Tingler) have all hired new skippers since the regular season ended.

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New York Mets Carlos Beltran Derek Shelton Eduardo Perez Pat Murphy

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Mets Holding Third Round Of Managerial Interviews

By Jeff Todd | October 28, 2019 at 9:06pm CDT

The Mets are moving ahead with a third round of managerial interviews, as Andy Martino of SNY.tv reported last night. Somewhat surprisingly, the list hasn’t really been pared down much to this point.

In for a third interview are long-known candidates Carlos Beltran, Tim Bogar, and Derek Shelton. (Joel Sherman of the New York Post noted Shelton’s continued inclusion on Twitter.) Also still in the mix is Eduardo Perez, who was said to be a “clear frontrunner” just days ago but remains in a large group of possibilities.

Luis Rojas once seemed to have a solid shot at the gig, but he now appears to be out of the mix. But Brewers bench coach Pat Murphy has taken his place after flying under the radar earlier in the process. Murphy is still in the hunt as well.

Now that Murphy has been unveiled, is there still a mystery candidate lurking? Martino has continually cited that possibility, though MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo tweets that it seems the field has been set.

New York owner Fred Wilpon will meet with the five candidates — and, presumably, any others if they should be inserted into the process. Precisely how the decision will be made remains to be seen, though surely it’ll mostly come down to a discussion between Wilpon, COO Jeff Wilpon, GM Brodie Van Wagenen, and a few top advisors.

The timeline is likewise not yet evident; DiComo suggests that it may take a bit longer due to the fact that Bogar still has one or two games left to coach in the World Series. It doesn’t appear as if any of the Mets’ candidates are in active demand from other organizations, so the New York club can continue to take its time reaching a final decision.

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New York Mets Carlos Beltran Derek Shelton Eduardo Perez Luis Rojas Pat Murphy Tim Bogar

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Pat Murphy In Consideration For Mets’ Managerial Opening

By George Miller | October 27, 2019 at 4:49pm CDT

With the Mets casting a wide net in the search for their next manager, another name has come to light as the rumored “mystery candidate.” Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that Brewers bench coach Pat Murphy has already had multiple interviews with the team and is in the mix for the job.

Whether the talk of a “mystery candidate” elicits an eye-roll or curiosity, prepare to hear more of the same: Andy Martino of SNY reports that there are more unnamed candidates in the running, and that Murphy is not the “bombshell” candidate that has attracted so much speculation.

Murphy, 60, has worked as Craig Counsell’s right-hand man since the 2016 seaosn, a job he earned after a six-year tenure managing in the Padres’ minor-league system and serving as the interim Major League manager for 96 games in 2015. He has extensive experience coaching in the college ranks, serving as the head coach of the Notre Dame baseball program from 1988-1994 and coaching at Arizona State from 1995-2009.

Murphy will join a narrowing pool of candidates for the Mets job, though that pool is certainly being narrowed down. Eduardo Perez has been rumored as a “front runner” while Tim Bogar, Carlos Beltran, Luis Rojas, and Derek Shelton have all been brough back for second interviews. If that group indeed comprises the finalists, it appears the Mets will once again turn to a manager with no prior Major League managerial experience—depending on how one counts Murphy’s interim stint with the Padres. The team has considered candidates from a wide range of backgrounds, and after missing out on Joe Girardi, it’s a bit of an unusual group. However, the search seems to be nearing its conclusion, though a third round of interviews likely remains.

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Coaching Notes: Maddux, Yankees, Gardenhire, Angels

By Steve Adams | November 5, 2015 at 7:54am CDT

The Nationals announced yesterday that they’ve hired recently departed Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux to fill the same role in their organization under new manager Dusty Baker. (MLB.com’s Bill Ladson first tweeted that the hire was likely.) In luring Maddux to D.C., the Nationals landed one of the game’s more respected coaches of any discipline, and they paid accordingly. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that Maddux will become the highest-paid pitching coach in baseball with the Nationals, adding that the team’s pursuit of Maddux began as soon as the Rangers provided him the opportunity to listen to offers from other teams. Washington’s pursuit lasted more than two weeks, and Nightengale hears that the Nationals’ plan was to hire Maddux as pitching coach regardless of who was eventually named manager.

A few more coaching notes from around the league…

  • The Yankees announced this week that 2015 assistant hitting coach Alan Cockrell has been promoted to hitting coach. Cockrell has previously served as Mariners’ hitting coach and was also the Rockies’ hitting coach during their 2007 World Series run. Meanwhile, recently retired Marcus Thames, who had a productive 2010 season as a part-time outfielder for the Yankees, has been named assistant hitting coach. Thames, still just 38, has spent the past three seasons as a hitting coach with three different Yankees’ minor league affiliates (Tampa, Trenton and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre).
  • Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the Padres have offered the bench coach position to former Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, who finished runner up to Andy Green in the team’s managerial search. Multiple sources told Lin of the offer, he notes, while another source said the Padres also offered the position to Dodgers bench coach Tim Wallach. All of this seems to indicate that current bench coach Dave Roberts could indeed depart in 2016, though Lin hears that the organization isn’t shutting the door on keeping Roberts. Rather, they’d assign him a new coaching position if he were to return. Roberts has been interviewing for managerial gigs and is believed to be the favorite to land the Dodgers’ managerial position at this time. Gardenhire, for his part, was diplomatic and wouldn’t confirm the offer in a recent MLB Network Radio appearance, but he spoke highly of GM A.J. Preller (links to Twitter). “A.J. is a brilliant young man,” said Gardenhire. “He’s pretty cool, a baseball junkie, loves to go out and scout. I like those things.” Gardenhire called the San Diego group as a whole “unbelievable.”
  • The Rangers will hire the Astros’ Doug Brocail as their new pitching coach, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Brocail, a former big league right-hander, has served as Houston’s pitching coach previously and more recently been working in the team’s front office. As Grant notes, he’ll bring an analytic point of view to Texas, which will mesh with second-year manager Jeff Banister’s philosophies. Grant also reports that Triple-A pitching coach Brad Holman will be the Rangers’ bullpen coach in 2016.
  • The Angels announced this week that former D-Backs pitching coach Charles Nagy has been hired as the club’s new pitching coach. The 48-year-old Nagy enjoyed a 14-year Major League career spent almost entirely in Cleveland, and he served as a special assistant in the Cleveland front office this past season. He was Arizona’s pitching coach from 2011-13.
  • Additionally, the Angels announced that they’ve promoted Dave Hansen from assistant hitting coach to hitting coach and named Paul Sorrento assistant hitting coach. Each hitting instructor spent more than 10 years in the Majors. Hansen has previously been hitting coach for the Mariners and Dodgers, and he’s held his assistant role in Anaheim since 2014. Sorrento has been working in the Angels’ minor league system.
  • The Brewers this week formally announced the previously reported hires of Derek Johnson as pitching coach and Pat Murphy as bench coach. Murphy, of course, was the Padres’ interim manager from June through season’s end and has a close relationship with Milwaukee skipper Craig Counsell, whom he coached in college.
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Houston Astros Los Angeles Angels Milwaukee Brewers New York Yankees San Diego Padres Texas Rangers Washington Nationals Dave Roberts Doug Brocail Marcus Thames Pat Murphy Ron Gardenhire

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Coaching Notes: Hickey, Butcher, Murphy, Tigers

By Steve Adams | October 28, 2015 at 4:48pm CDT

The Rays have signed pitching coach Jim Hickey to a three-year extension, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Hickey’s previous deal ran through the 2016 campaign, but Topkin writes that, presumably, the new deal replaces that one and offers Hickey a raise. Under Hickey, the Rays have continually turned out one of the best pitching units in all of Major League Baseball despite a huge amount of turnover due to the team’s payroll constraints and difficulty retaining players as they become more expensive via arbitration and free agency.

A few more notes on some prominent coaching positions throughout the Majors…

  • The Diamondbacks have hired Mike Butcher as their new pitching coach, according to a team press release. Butcher has spent the past nine seasons as Mike Scioscia’s pitching coach in Anaheim, but the Angels announced recently that he would not return for a 10th season. Butcher will replace Mike Harkey, who was fired by the D-Backs following the 2015 campaign.
  • Pat Murphy, who served as the Padres’ interim manager following Bud Black’s dismissal in San Diego, will become the Brewers’ bench coach, reports Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Murphy will join manager Craig Counsell in Milwaukee, whom he coached more than 20 years ago at Notre Dame. Milwaukee had interest in adding Murphy to its coaching staff prior to his hiring in San Diego, Lin notes. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt said earlier this month that adding Murphy to the coaching staff was a strong possibility for the Brewers.
  • The Tigers have narrowed their search for a pitching coach to a handful of candidates, including recently reassigned Nationals pitching coach Steve McCatty, reports MLive.com’s Chris Iott. McCatty has previously served as Detroit’s pitching coach, and he’s joined among the finalists by former Tigers pitcher A.J. Sager, Iott hears. Detroit is closing in on a decision, per Iott.
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