2-time NL manager of the year Pat Murphy agrees to contract extension with Brewers

By Canadian Press on February 20, 2026.

PHOENIX (AP) — Milwaukee’s Pat Murphy has agreed to a multi-year contract extension after leading the Brewers to division titles and getting selected as NL manager of the year each of his first two seasons.

Murphy’s contract had been set to expire at the end of the season if he hadn’t agreed to an extension. He had taken over as Milwaukee’s manager after predecessor Craig Counsell let his contract run out after the 2023 season and then signed a lucrative deal with the rival Chicago Cubs.

The Brewers didn’t release terms when announcing the deal Friday. The Athletic, which first reported Murphy’s new deal, said he now has a three-year contract with a club option for 2029.

“Pat Murphy has been an incredible partner and leader here for over a decade,” Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said in a statement. “I’m thrilled that we have been able to come up with a framework that keeps Murph with the Brewers for years to come and maintains the special relationship that we have established. I look forward to continuing the pursuit of a World Series championship with Murph and his staff.”

Murphy, 67, owns a 190-134 record as Milwaukee’s manager and has helped the Brewers wildly outperform preseason forecasts each of the last two years. The Brewers earned a franchise-record 97 wins last season, won a third straight NL Central title and beat Counsell’s Cubs in the NL Division Series before getting swept in the NL Championship Series by the eventual World Series-winning Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Brewers went 93-69 and won the NL Central championship in 2024 before losing an NL Wild Card Series to the New York Mets.

Along the way, he has delighted Brewers fans and gained attention for his unique style, which has included pulling out pancakes from his pocket during a televised dugout interview and having his sons frequently sitting alongside him at postgame news conferences.

Murphy is the first Brewers skipper ever to get named NL manager of the year, and he has done it each of his two years in Milwaukee. The only other people ever to get selected as manager of the year in consecutive seasons are Atlanta’s Bobby Cox (2004-05), Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash (2020-21) and Cleveland’s Stephen Vogt (2024-25).

The Brewers hired Murphy to take over after he worked as Counsell’s bench coach in Milwaukee for eight seasons. Murphy had been Counsell’s college coach at Notre Dame.

Murphy’s only previous major league managerial experience came when he went 42-54 on an interim basis with San Diego in 2015 after the firing of Bud Black. He was a minor league manager in the Padres organization from 2011-2015.

Before that, Murphy posted a combined 947-400-2 coaching record at Notre Dame (1988-94) and Arizona State (1995-2009). He helped Arizona State reach the College World Series championship game in 1998.

He had a total of 1,000 college wins in a career that also included stints at Division-III Maryville (1983) and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (1986-87).

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The Associated Press