Pat Murphy is the reigning back-to-back National League Manager of the Year, and he has a chance to three-peat this year when Major League Baseball announced this year's award winners in November.
For the last two seasons, Stephen Vogt and Murphy have won the Manager of the Year Awards in each league. They have joined Kevin Cash and Bobby Cox as the only managers to win two Manager of the Year Awards in a row. However, nobody in the history of baseball has won three consecutive Manager of the Year Awards.
Murphy is the current favorite to win the National League Manager of the Year Award, and doing so would make him the first to three-peat. Vogt's Guardians are in a position to make the postseason, but Will Venable's work with the White Sox rightfully has him as the American League favorite.
As for Murphy's Brewers, they are the only team in baseball with 90 wins and are on pace to finish with the best record in baseball for the second consecutive season. They are 10 wins away from the first 100-win season in franchise history. With eight more wins, they will break last year's franchise record for wins in a season.
What makes Murphy's body of work so impressive? Well, the Brewers have paced the National League, which features the Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs, without a high payroll. The Brewers have three regulars in their lineup who are 22 years old or younger, but still, they play fundamental baseball and find ways to win.
Perhaps what's most impressive about Murphy's team is that they have hit the fewest home runs in baseball. In this era of baseball, winning without elite slugging is very difficult.
It's not like the Brewers are just an island of misfit toys with a front office playing moneyball. Christian Yelich is a former MVP, William Contreras is one of the best catchers in baseball, Jacob Misiorowski is the best pitcher in baseball and Jackson Chourio is one of the best young players in the sport. They have stars, but they also traded away their ace, Freddy Peralta, in the offseason. They operate on a tight budget and rely heavily on their player development.