Pat Murphy Wins Third Straight Manager of the Year From a Hospital Bed

Pat Murphy picked the date for his hip replacement about a month ago, after the World Series, and never checked when the Manager of the Year winner would be announced. On Tuesday night he became the first manager in baseball history to win the award three seasons running, and he accepted it live on MLB Network from a hospital bed in Milwaukee, wearing a green hospital gown and a brand-new hip.

How did the award night actually go?

From a bed at Froedtert Hospital, one day after the operation. Murphy had his right hip replaced on Monday, a procedure that had originally been scheduled for midseason, not long after back surgery, only for him to push it back until the season was over. He did the MLB Network interviews before and after the announcement from the hospital, then took a Zoom call with local reporters and opened with a shout-out to the hospital.

“The doctor gave me some dates and I just picked a date one day, and I had no idea that it was going to coincide,” Murphy said, Sportsnet reports. “I was just thinking about what we had, task at hand. I mean, I probably picked it a month ago and obviously I picked it after the World Series was done, but I didn’t know we were going to be in the World Series at that time. But I thought it was a safe date to do it.” He closed the call the way only he would: “I’ve got nothing to do. I’m just sitting here.”

Why has nobody done three in a row before?

Because the award has been handed out every year since 1983 and nobody had ever swept three straight ballots until now. Murphy received 20 of the 30 first-place votes and 124 points, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, and he was the only manager named on all 30 ballots. Atlanta’s Walt Weiss finished second with seven first-place votes and 86 points, NBC Sports reports, Philadelphia’s Don Mattingly was third with one first-place vote, and San Diego’s Craig Stammen was fourth with two.

Murphy is the 10th manager in either league to win the award three or more times, and only Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox and Buck Showalter have won it four times. Cox is the only other back-to-back National League winner. Murphy is also the first manager since Ozzie Guillen of the White Sox in 2005 to win the World Series and Manager of the Year in the same season, which is the part of the record that ties the hospital bed to the parade.

What did the Brewers do to earn it?

They won more games than any Brewers team ever has, with less money and younger arms than anyone else in the sport. Milwaukee finished 103-59, a franchise record, won the NL Central for a fourth straight season by 14 games over the Cubs, swept the two-time defending champion Dodgers in the NLCS and beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in the World Series, going 11-2 in the postseason.

The numbers underneath it are the story of the season. Eighty of the team’s 162 games were started by rookie pitchers. The Brewers became the first team in baseball history to win 100 games without a winning streak of more than five games, posting a plus-214 run differential despite finishing tied for 28th in home runs. Their opening-week payroll of $125.5 million ranked 19th in the majors, USA Today reports, against $322.4 million for the Dodgers, and they swept Los Angeles anyway. Jacob Misiorowski went 16-5 with a 1.80 ERA and 252 strikeouts, Brice Turang is a finalist for NL MVP, and closer Trevor Megill is up for the new NL Reliever of the Year award. The wins climbed every year under Murphy: 93 in 2024, 97 in 2025, 103 this year.

What did Murphy say in the hospital?

He said the award belongs to the players, and then he told a story that only makes sense if you know the man. “I think it’s just a reflection of what our team has done,” Murphy said Tuesday night, Sportsnet reports. “First and foremost is players, hungry players that are willing to live up to certain standards and have a focus and awareness about winning.” On his own part he was characteristically unsure: “I don’t necessarily think I’m deserving, to be quite honest with you,” he told USA Today. “But it’s more a matter of just keeping everything in perspective. I am just super, super, super, super grateful.”

Then came the FaceTime. Murphy told reporters he had called outfielder Sal Frelick earlier in the day, Frelick did not pick up, and the exchange that followed ended with Murphy joking that Frelick had been traded to a new league in Indonesia where the fences are 290 feet in centre field. Frelick replied: “Are you still drunk? I’m in a hospital with a new diamond-studded hip.” Murphy’s answer was to tell him to delete the texts, calling Frelick “the single best competitor, teammate, winner, person I’ve been around in years.” It is the same unfiltered Murphy who cursed Jackson Merrill on live television during his own mid-game interview in October, and the same one who benched captain Christian Yelich for NLCS Game 1 and won without him.

The last two weeks explain why the hospital bed did not slow the celebration down. Since the final out against Tampa Bay, Murphy has been feted in a downtown Milwaukee parade that drew an estimated 750,000 people, appeared on Saturday Night Live, been honoured on the field during Notre Dame’s win over No. 1 Miami, and texted with Bruce Springsteen. Misiorowski, the rookie ace, traded a signed jersey and cleats to a fan for his own 1-of-1 card during the same run, and the NLCS turned on Henderson’s two throwing errors gifting the Dodgers runs in Game 2.

Who won the American League award?

Will Venable of the Chicago White Sox, and his case is the mirror image of Murphy’s. The White Sox became the first team in MLB history to reach the playoffs after consecutive 100-loss seasons, going 84-78 with 19 rookies playing during the year. Venable received 15 of the 30 first-place votes and 111 points, Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash was runner-up with 12 first-place votes and 98 points, and Boston’s Chad Tracy got three first-place votes and 47 points.

Venable got his first managerial job when the White Sox were coming off 121 losses in 2024, a record for the most since 1900, after 101 losses the year before. They went 60-102 in his debut season, then swept Houston in two road games in the AL Wild Card Series before losing a five-game AL Division Series to Cleveland. He is the first White Sox manager to win the award since Ozzie Guillen in 2005, the same Guillen whose double Murphy has now matched in the National League.

What happens next?

The awards week keeps going. The AL and NL Cy Young Award winners and the Relievers of the Year will be announced on Wednesday, and the MVP winners will be revealed on Thursday, with Turang in the running for the National League honour. Murphy turns 68 on November 28, and he signed a two-year contract extension in February that includes a team option for 2029. No recovery timeline for the hip replacement has been announced, and nobody at the Brewers has said when he will be back on his feet. Given the last two weeks, the safe bet is that he will spend the wait the same way he spent the announcement: answering questions, praising his players, and finding the joke in it.