Pat Murphy, former ASU head baseball coach, named manager of Milwaukee Brewers
Nov 15, 2023, 10:40 AM | Updated: 1:00 pm
Pat Murphy, bench coach of the Milwaukee Brewers before the game against the Kansas City Royals at American Family Field on May 13, 2023 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images)
(Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images)
Pat Murphy, who as Arizona State’s head baseball coach led the Sun Devils to four College World Series in 15 seasons, was hired to replace Craig Counsell Wednesday as manager of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Murphy’s first high-profile position came in 1987 when he became head coach for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish’s baseball team at 39-years-old. After three consecutive trips to the NCAA regional finals in 1992-1994, he was hired as head coach at ASU.
Beyond trips to the College World Series, Murphy was a four-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year. Current ASU head coach Willie Bloomquist was one of Murphy’s early standouts. Bloomquist played at ASU from 1997-99 and earned 1999 Pac-10 Player of the Year honors as a junior.
Couldn’t be more thrilled for this guy!! Long time coming! Best of luck Big Dog!! https://t.co/WTuHXpSyXT
— Willie Bloomquist (@williebloom) November 14, 2023
In his last three years at Arizona State from 2007-2009, Murphy and the Sun Devils were 113-12 at home with 29 players selected in the Major League Baseball Draft. Brett Wallace, Ike Davis and Mike Leake were drafted in the first round.
Despite his on-field success, Murphy was fired in November 2009 following claims his program overpaid student-athletes for work in an outreach program, the use of an impermissible recruiter and other violations. Eventually, the NCAA leveled a one-year NCAA postseason ban in 2012.
After his ASU tenure, Murphy moved to Major League Baseball. He spent 2010-2015 with the San Diego Padres organization as a manager at various minor league levels, including serving as interim manager for the big-league club when Bud Black was fired in June 2015.
After not being selected for the San Diego manager job at the end of the season, he joined the Milwaukee Brewers as Counsell’s bench coach in 2015. Murphy coached Counsell at Notre Dame.
When Murphy returned to Arizona as manager of the Padres in 2015, he said the turbulent departure from ASU had “crushed” him at the time.
“I learned so much going through that,” he said. “You think you’re mature, you think you’ve got it, then going through that experience, it cut me down to my core and made me focus and do things I didn’t have to do before. My son and my daughter got me through it, in terms of, ‘I’ve got to be stronger for them,’ what example I was being for them.”
Murphy’s son, Kai Murphy, played for ASU from 2021-22 and is now in the Padres’ minor league system.
