MLB WINTER MEETINGS

December 4, 2023

Pat Murphy

Milwaukee Brewers

Press Conference

Q. Wade Miley back in the fold, that's a good addition, isn't it? Good guy to bring back.

PAT MURPHY: Yeah. That's a great one. Good point. It's a great one.

Q. You know what you're getting with the guy, right?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, he's much more than just a pitcher. He means so much to a team. He's incredible in the clubhouse. He's a guy who makes others better. He's going to make other pitchers better. When he takes the mound, yeah, he's going to compete. He sets a great example. He can play on any club. Any club, any time, you want him.

Q. Just turned 37; his goal is 30 starts next year. Realistic?

PAT MURPHY: That's his goal?

Q. Yeah.

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, if that's his goal, he'll probably achieve it. He's in better shape than he's ever been in. I think he's trending, he's getting smarter. A lot of these guys aren't that smart and he's one of those guys getting smarter.

I'm excited about Wade. What can you say, I'm close with him, I was really pumped up that he decided to come back.

Q. Your reflections watching Jackson this morning. That's a 19-year-old?

PAT MURPHY: How cool. How cool. Yeah, it's emotional. You think about it because 19-year-old kid, and I can tell he's feeling all that pressure, but at the same time his heart is all about taking care of his family, his heart is all about just playing baseball, why are you giving me all this attention. It's pretty sweet to see. Beautiful kid, beautiful smile.

Q. How many times have you actually laid eyes on him playing?

PAT MURPHY: I don't usually count that like how many times have I seen you? Like 61? This will be 26.

Q. More than you would like to count, I'm sure. Obviously your paths have taken you different places, and probably has not been a lot.

PAT MURPHY: I've seen him in Spring Training, and he's a priority for the organization for some time. So I heard about him and, you know, interacted with him. Played for us in Spring Training.

So do I have a great view of how good he is and stuff? No. You watch him on video, you hear about it. When the old-time scouts and the new guys that are collecting the data, they both love him, that's kind of a good combination.

Q. How can you guys go into Spring Training, talk about Opening Day, just that kind of commitment and pressure and the eyes that come with that, how can you guys help him manage all that?

PAT MURPHY: I think that's a huge part of our job right now, to understand what he needs. He doesn't know what he needs. We've got to be the ones that understand it. What's our support system like for him going forward, managing expectations, getting him to bring out close to his best self. It might not happen right away, but that's in the forefront of our minds. Our staff has got to do that.

Q. How do you view him in centerfield on Opening Day. Is it he has to come in and earn that position, or he has an inside track, would you like him to take it, how do you view that?

PAT MURPHY: How do I view it? Like everybody's got to earn it. He's no different than anybody else. I told him today, you're No. 94 to me. He's always worn No. 94 in the thing, you want that No. 11, you got to earn it. I'll hang that No. 11 in my office and he can look at it every day if he wants, but he's going to wear 94 until he earns that.

Q. A lot of people wondering what the Brewers are going to be in 2024, is this a transition, is it a continuation of what you and Craig have done, the big three pitchers have been broken up, where do you think -- are you going to hold on to that first place as tight as you can, where do you think the Brewers are?

PAT MURPHY: Well, we're not in first place right now, are we? I don't know if we played yet, but if we haven't, we're not. So I'm not going to worry about any of that.

What you just said is probably a great question, but maybe for somebody else, but for me I'm going to worry about what's in hand right in front of our face. We're not going to predict or forecast anything right now.

I don't do that anyway. I don't separate offense and defense and pitching. You may ask questions about it, but I'm not going to separate it. It's our team and one affects the other. If one area stands on its own, I don't know how many times it actually stands on its own, it's usually affected by the other. When your defense is not good, your pitching doesn't look as good. When you aren't scoring any runs, your pitching feels that pressure and it's affected. They all run together.

But it's easier to ask questions about the separate areas, and I'm just not that great of an interview, so I'm not going to be able to do a great job with some of that. I think forecasting what we're going to be, that's for other people. I got to think about what's at hand.

Q. Taking that more generally, what do you think about the trajectory of the division overall in recent years and all the young talent that's coming up?

PAT MURPHY: Man, I overate the other teams. That's kind of like just inherent in how I am. So I see the Reds, I can tell you everybody on the Reds, I can tell you their top 40 players in their thing and see what the Pirates are doing, obviously the Cubs are going to be very, very competitive again.

The Cardinals, what can you say? You know, like, they look tremendous. What they have already done, you always look at that and say, wow. I give them some would say too much credit, but we've got -- the division is -- everybody's moving in the right direction. I hope. (Smiling).

Q. You mentioned the word "smart" earlier. You said some pitchers are smart, alluded that maybe some aren't. I think a lot of the stereotype would be the guy that doesn't have great stuff and is successful is smart, but does that mean that's smarter than the guy with the great stuff. That's a long way of asking like how do you define smart?

PAT MURPHY: I was just throwing stuff out there; it was probably a stupid comment, to be honest with you. Wade is -- I get on him. I get on him because we're really close. Wade's just beyond his years competitive and beyond his years willing to help other people. Wade is about other people. To me, that makes him really, really smart. That's what I was referring to. I wasn't even talking necessarily about his pitching. He's made adjustments and that type of thing.

Q. As far as on the mound, can you differentiate, does the word smart actually mean anything? Are there guys that intuitively understand things or dig more into data to be successful?

PAT MURPHY: I don't think that makes 'em better, necessarily. I think that there's guys that have better instincts than others for things, but I think the total package is different in everybody. I wouldn't use the word smart. When a guy is, like you said, a soft tosser that hits his spots and changes speeds and has some level of good results, then we say he's a smart pitcher.

A guy that has unbelievable stuff might be just as smart, but we say, oh, well, he gets by with good stuff. It's a little unfair. I try not to jump into whether a guy's smart or not, necessarily. I was just joking about Wade and probably used the wrong word.

Q. When you look at the way you guys have had success the last few years and how you've been able to integrate young talent at the Major League level, how do you view your role as manager in helping those young guys when they come up potentially finding the right spots and helping them still grow as a player and the balance, like what do you think are the keys to melding all that?

PAT MURPHY: I think that it can't just be me, but I think we have a great staff put together. I think those guys will be there for those young people breaking in to try to help them understand the standards, help 'em understand you're good enough, that's why you're here, but now here are the standards. It's not enough to just want to be here, how do we sustain it and even grow.

I think that's where the staff comes in and helps out with that transition to helping them understand and be aware enough, these are your responsibilities, these are the standards, and I'm excited about that part of it. But we got a lot of young energy.

Q. When you took this job, did you have to make calls to the players and touch base with them, or because you know these guys, they know you? That's often the part of the to-do list for a new manager. Was it on yours?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, yeah, I touched base with a number of them. We're all familiar with each other. Some of it was pretty lighthearted. I got some texts from them that were pretty memorable.

Yeah, it's been great. The communication between a manager and the players is constant. So, yeah, it was on the list, and I didn't check off every guy, but... do.

Q. Did Yelich send you one that was memorable?

PAT MURPHY: Yelly and I are pretty tight. And, yeah, no, he's pretty straightforward. He doesn't usually express it on text message, you know what I mean.

Q. You've been pretty constant communication with Rickie. How have those conversations been going?

PAT MURPHY: Between Rickie and I?

Q. Yeah.

PAT MURPHY: Awful.

(Smiling.)

Q. Thinking about making a change?

PAT MURPHY: It's new, it's the off-season, of course.

Q. He talked a lot about how he's got to learn from you. He's going to be picking your brain constantly in the new role. Is that just kind of like an ongoing conversation between the two of you?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, I think your staff, your staff, it's just constantly developing that relationship. It's just you're constantly seeing where, if you're having serious, candid conversations, you're not talking down to somebody, you're just talking with 'em. You're trying to build that relationship.

And I'm trying to encourage Rickie, like, Rickie, you're impactful, man. People trust you and believe in you. So let's use that gift.

Q. Use that voice.

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, he's got such a gift. A tremendous gift. A lot of our staff does. Tremendous gift in order to use that. I'm just trying to encourage them to use it. He's impactful.

Q. How do you think about first base at this time?

PAT MURPHY: First base? 90 feet. Right over there.

Q. Who do you think will play first base for you? Do you think that person is still out there?

PAT MURPHY: To say I haven't thought about it would be lying to you, and I haven't done that yet. Yet. Yeah. We traded for this kid Bauers, who is I've known him since his days in San Diego, and he's got an incredible potential. We've got other candidates that are either on the team or -- Owen Miller played a lot of first base. The Jones kid can play first base.

We've got some options right now. I don't know exactly what's in the hopper of what else we can do there, but I'm sure there's other people that there's ongoing conversations that Matt and his crew are having. But I'm not exactly sure. I know what our options are.

Q. Where do you see Tyler Black fitting? Because he can play a defensive a couple different spots.

PAT MURPHY: I see him fitting. Where, I don't know. But I see him fitting. I like the player.

Q. How about the other side of the infield, third base. You got Monasterio who had a pretty good year for the time that he was up, a guy that you can look at as potentially playing third base?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, you see what he did in the fall league. Yeah, Owen Miller's played over there. There will be some options there too. You guys are trying to pick out areas that you think we're not certain about, is that the questions? Okay. Just trying to get on the same wave length. Trying to understand.

Q. Is there an area of your club that you think there's room to improve? Like an area you would like to see Matt say, hey, maybe look at this position?

PAT MURPHY: All of 'em. There's always room for improvement. No, they know what they're doing, they have been doing it a long time. When you start crossing over and thinking you can do part of their job, just kind of do what you're supposed to do.

Obviously we got to pitch, and part of that pitching is playing defense and part of that pitching is being able to score enough runs so you don't have to be perfect.

So we need a little bit of everything. Whatever, it's like a soup, you keep stirring the soup and you throw in a little ingredients, and you don't think you need that but you end up needing that.

So it's hard to be specific. One guy can change other positions. The acquisition of one player can change your needs at other positions.

Q. We talked about Jackson today, Tyler Black. Do you think Jeferson Quero, we could see him at the Major League level?

PAT MURPHY: He's a good player. Seems like he's got all the right stuff. I don't know him that well, but, again, all the reports and all the things you hear about, he's the right kid.

That's where it starts for me, if they're the right people and they get it and they're passionate about competing and understanding what the game's really all about, that's the guy you want. I hear this kid's that. So, yeah, I want him on our side.

Q. Is Ashby going through a normal off-season?

PAT MURPHY: Is he going through a normal -- define that, please.

Q. As far as throwing program. Is he where he would ordinarily be at full health at this point?

PAT MURPHY: I think he's progressing. I think anytime you have any type of procedure, you're going to be a little bit on a different schedule, a little more mindful of different things. And I think we're excited about his progression and hoping that it continues to get him back to the type of stuff he had before, and I think he'll grow from this and be better off for it.