Some players and coaches dwell on painful playoff losses to the point that they can’t watch the rest of the postseason.
Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy has chosen a different path since his team blew a two-run lead in the ninth inning and lost to the New York Mets in the third game of their NL Wild Card Series.
“I’ve watched every inning of the playoffs because I love it,” Murphy said Thursday. “I love learning. There’s a lot to be learned at that time and a lot to be reinforced at that time.”
Murphy mentioned that his son, Kai Murphy, who plays as an outfielder in the minor leagues for the San Diego Padres, has helped him move on in the week after that playoff loss. Murphy had spent many years supporting his son, and now it was Kai’s turn to help him.
“He heard all the stuff that I was preaching to him for all those years,” Murphy said. “So he didn’t let me stay down for too long.” Murphy and the Brewers have many reasons to feel positive about their performance.
Instead of struggling after manager Craig Counsell left for the rival Chicago Cubs and 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes was traded to Baltimore, the Brewers dealt with numerous injuries and won the NL Central by 10 games.
Their 93-69 record was tied for the fourth-best in the majors.
The Brewers were the only team in the majors that didn’t have a losing streak longer than three games, showing the consistency they had in Murphy’s first full season as a major league manager. He had been the interim manager for the Padres during part of the 2015 season.
“It would be a crime if he doesn’t win Manager of the Year,” Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said.
The Brewers have made the playoffs in six of the last seven seasons and won the NL Central three of the last four years, but they haven’t won a postseason series since reaching Game 7 of the 2018 NL Championship Series. They last made it to the World Series in 1982 and have never won the title.
Murphy disagreed with the idea that the Brewers’ recent history shows they know how to perform well in the regular season but need to figure out how to succeed in the postseason. He believes this thinking overlooks the challenges of winning in a smaller market.
“Someone says the Brewers got the regular season figured out, now they’ve got to figure out the playoffs,” Murphy said. “That’s absurd, that you’d say that, if you really know baseball. We don’t have the regular season figured out.
It’s a grind every fricking year to get to be where they have been. I’ve watched it. I’ve felt it. It’s labor-intensive, because we are working with less, we are in a position where we have to maneuver.”
The Brewers face additional challenges. Shortstop Willy Adames can become a free agent after hitting 32 home runs, stealing 21 bases, and driving in 112 runs.
Murphy praised Adames for producing in important moments and for the attitude he brought to the team each day. “I think that’s irreplaceable,” Murphy said. “It’s going to be really tough to replace him.”
Milwaukee could benefit from the returns of outfielder Christian Yelich and pitcher Brandon Woodruff. Yelich played his last game on July 23 before undergoing back surgery, while Woodruff didn’t pitch this season due to recovery from shoulder surgery.
Arnold mentioned that left-hander Robert Gasser is not expected to return from Tommy John surgery until late next season. Murphy plans to reach out for advice from people he knows who understand his situation.
He will also continue watching the rest of the postseason as the Mets try to keep up an unusual trend. In the Brewers’ history, any team that has beaten them in the playoffs has gone on to reach the World Series.
“It just happened that the last four or five years, we’ve run into the hottest team in the National League in the first round of the playoffs,” Murphy said.
