Pat Murphy doesn’t manage the Brewers with kid gloves, and Milwaukee doesn’t want him to.
That much was on display Wednesday in New York, one day after Murphy pulled rookie Cooper Pratt from a game and then had to field questions about it. Fifteen minutes into his news conference, the Brewers manager glanced up at the ceiling and winced.
“I don’t want it to become about me in any way,” Murphy said.
It already was. With the Brewers sitting at 81-51 and hanging around baseball’s best record, Murphy’s hard-edged style has become part of the team’s identity. Milwaukee is built differently than most clubs: low-budget, heavy on homegrown talent, and loaded with young players who have grown up inside Murphy’s standards.
Christian Yelich, the club’s longest-tenured position player and the only one making more than $10 million this season ($26 million), said the message is clear inside the room.
“For our team, it has to be that way,” Yelich said. “We’ve all agreed amongst ourselves to play a certain type of way and hold each other accountable for playing that way.”
Murphy said it more bluntly.
“If you don’t have those $30 million players,” he said, “then you gotta be a little bit uncommon.”
The Pratt situation fit right into that philosophy. Murphy removed the 22-year-old after he didn’t run hard out of the batter’s box on a fifth-inning popup.
A failed bunt attempt earlier in the game also irritated him, and Murphy said there were a couple of other things that likely played into the decision, though he didn’t spell them out. The point, from his view, was to send a message.
“I’m not trying to be Johnny hard-ass here,” Murphy said. “It’s just for a young player coming into the league, you have to build habits.”
Pratt, who debuted in June, is still a major piece of Milwaukee’s future. Before he reached the majors, the Brewers signed him to an eight-year, $50.75 million extension.
They want the gifted defender to sharpen the details, play smarter and keep his effort level where they expect it. Pratt said after Tuesday’s game that “there is no excuse” and that it wouldn’t happen again.
On Wednesday, he was back in the starting lineup.
Around the clubhouse, the reaction sounded less like criticism and more like a lesson. Aaron Ashby, a homegrown Brewer and fifth-year pitcher, said Murphy’s intent was clear.
“It’s not like Murph doesn’t like Coop; he loves Coop,” Ashby said. “And this is going to be better for Coop.
We all know that and can appreciate that. It’s a mutual respect thing.
“So many guys in the game today don’t maybe play to the hustle standard that the game used to be played at, and we try to do that.”
That hustle standard matters to the Brewers. They see it as one of the things that separates them.
“It just ingrains in them, this is the expectation, this is the standard,” Murphy said.
Not everyone would handle it the same way, and one Brewers player, speaking anonymously so he could be candid, said the move had a practical purpose.
“What’s going to be more impactful? What’s going to get the message across?
What is going to make sure that certain stuff doesn’t happen in future situations? Probably that.”
That seems to be the larger idea behind Murphy’s style. The Brewers view moments like the Pratt benching as part of a longer timeline, not just a reaction to one night at Citi Field. With October in mind, they believe every detail matters more then, and Murphy is trying to make sure his team is ready when it counts.
Milwaukee has reached the playoffs in eight of the last nine seasons, but it has never won the World Series and last appeared in 1982. Murphy wants players who can help when the games tighten up, and the Brewers believe accountability now can pay off later.
The buy-in is helped by winning, and it is reinforced by veterans who address problems before Murphy has to step in. Those conversations happen often, according to the players. At the same time, Murphy’s remark about not having $30 million players cuts both ways: maybe the team’s current setup makes that kind of accountability easier to accept.
“Maybe it’s because we are such a young group and we haven’t had time to be plagued by egos,” Ashby said.
Murphy’s track record suggests the message can land. Sal Frelick and Caleb Durbin, now with the Boston Red Sox, were both pulled last April after mistakes and then responded with strong seasons as important parts of Milwaukee’s success. Murphy, who spent years as a college coach and has won the past two National League Manager of the Year Awards, has shown he can push the right buttons.
He also knows it doesn’t work the same way for everyone. Murphy said he doesn’t expect catchers to run everything out with maximum effort, and some players, including 25-year-old pitcher Brandon Sproat (5.27 ERA), have not thrived under his criticism. Even so, Murphy said he understands where the line is.
“There’s certain people you can do it to and certain people you can’t,” Murphy said.
It is not for everyone.
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