The Milwaukee Brewers exploded onto the scene this year. With one series left in the regular season, they hold the best record across the MLB at 96-63, easily clinching the National League Central.
Milwaukee has been excellent in nearly all categories of the game. They have a great pitching staff, play good defense, and can score runs when it matters the most. They have set themselves up nicely to roll into October well rested and ready to go.
Pat Murphy, the club's manager who took over for Craig Counsell after the 2023 season, gets a lot of the attention here. Many were not expecting the Brewers to be the best team in baseball through the regular season, but here we are.
MLB insider points to Brewers' Pat Murphy as NL Manager of the Year
With the regular season dwindling, awards talk is starting to heat up. There are many close battles for awards like the AL MVP race and the NL Rookie of the Year Award. However, one award that might not be close could be the NL Manager of the Year Award.
The Athletic's Jayson Stark points to Pat Murphy as the candidate running away with this award for how well the Brewers have played this season. He won the award last year and is on his way to winning it again.
"Murphy doesn't have to sweat out that drama. It's easy to forget that once upon a time, the Brewrrs were 0-4 this year – and had been outscored in those games, 47-15. Or that they still had a losing record on Memorial Day weekend. Now they're the No. 1 seed in the sport."
On the AL side of things, Stark points to Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, who won the award last season as well. If the two can win it again, it would be the first time in history that the same managers have won Manager of the Year back-to-back seasons.