Pat Murphy isn’t pretending the Brewers and Dodgers are built the same way, and he’s not shy about saying why that matters.
With the No. 1 seed Milwaukee Brewers set to meet the No. 2 seed Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, Murphy pointed to the gap in roster comfort between the two clubs. Both teams finished the regular season as the best in their league, but they got there by very different routes.
The Dodgers mixed major spending, blockbuster trades and strong player development. Milwaukee pieced together a 103-win team with undervalued castoffs, smart trades, elite pitching infrastructure and a deep farm system.
That difference, Murphy said, shows up when injuries hit or when the season starts asking for extra bodies.
“Yeah, yeah. I just feel like they probably feel like they have a cushion when they're up four games or up five games in the division, they feel a little differently about it than I do when I know that the next guy up is a guy that's never seen the big leagues or the next guy up is a guy that we picked up on as a DFA,” Murphy said.
Murphy, 67, has now guided Milwaukee to the best record in MLB in back-to-back seasons, including the franchise-record 103 wins in 2026. He gave credit to the Brewers’ front office for finding the right pieces to keep the team moving.
“I just have the front office to thank for being able to pick up the right guys because those type of guys have filled in and did really nicely for us,” Muprhy said. “But we don't have the luxury of maybe you have a guy that hadn't pitched much and he's going to make his debut in August.
He's a $30 million two-time Cy Young winner or something like that. We don't have that cushion.
So we're more desperate to play every single game.”
That urgency, in Murphy’s view, is part of Milwaukee’s identity. The Brewers may look different from the Dodgers, but they’ve still been built to win, and they’ve done it without the same safety net.
However you frame it, Milwaukee is for real. And even if this series brings a fresh wrinkle, the Dodgers are still the team everyone else is chasing.
In Other News...
Brewers Have A Late-Inning Edge That Could Rattle The Dodgers
If there is a place the Brewers can feel especially good heading into this matchup, it is the late innings. Milwaukees bullpen has spent most of the season giving Craig Counsells old club a way to shorten games, and the mix at the back end has been built around Trevor Megill, Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby. Megill, acquired after bouncing around to a few organizations, has settled into a role that fits his power fastball and sharper command, while Uribe has given the Brewers a hard-to-hit look with elite run prevention traits and a ground-ball profile that plays in October.
That matters now because the Dodgers are the kind of opponent that can make any lead feel fragile, and Milwaukees relief group has already shown it can carry real weight when the games tighten. The Brewers do not need their bullpen to be flashy so much as dependable, and in a series where one clean inning can change the tone, that edge could become one of the most important parts of the matchup. The only question is how far that advantage can stretch once the biggest spots arrive. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Just Lost A Veteran Arm From Their Bullpen Depth Plan
The Braves bullpen depth chart took another hit this week with Ian Hamilton and Rob Zastryzny both electing minor league free agency. Hamiltons route back onto the market came after the Yankees non-tendered him and Atlanta brought him in on a non-guaranteed major league deal, but his time there never really got traction, with only limited work in the majors and at Triple-A before he was back on the move.
For Milwaukee, Zastryzny is the more familiar name, having previously pitched for the Brewers and a handful of other clubs as a left-handed depth option. His latest stretch never got much momentum either, as injury slowed him early and kept him from establishing a real role, leaving him to choose free agency rather than stay in the organization and wait for another opening. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Roster Philosophy Looks Smarter As Former Player Faces Wrong Fit
With the National League Championship Series rematch against the Dodgers on deck, the Brewers are once again looking like a club built with a clear identity. Milwaukee has long favored depth, flexibility and players who fit defined jobs over chasing the same kind of roster template everyone else is using, and that approach is part of why the team keeps showing up in October with a chance to make noise. It also makes former Brewers player Caleb Durbin an interesting measuring stick, because his game still speaks to the values Milwaukee tends to prize.
Durbin is the kind of contact-first, small-ball player who can help a lineup in the right setting, but he is not built around forcing the ball over the wall. Now he is in a different environment, where the discussion is less about leaning into what he does well and more about asking him to cover for other problems around him. For Milwaukee, it is another reminder that roster fit matters as much as raw talent, and that the Brewers way of doing business can look pretty sharp when contrasted with a club trying to make a mismatched piece serve a different purpose. [Read more 🡒]