Pat Murphy earned more hardware Tuesday, winning his third straight National League Manager of the Year award after piloting the Brewers to a 103-win season. Will Venable, who brought the White Sox to the playoffs after three straight 100-loss seasons, took the American League honor.
Murphy, 67, is the first to win the award three times in a row, and though postseason results don’t factor in the voting, it is notable that he pushed the Brewers further into October in each of the three years he’s been in Milwaukee.
In Murphy’s first year managing the Brewers in 2024, they took the division before losing to the Mets in the Wild Card Series. Last year, he led the Brewers to a franchise-high 97 wins before losing to the Dodgers in the NLCS. This year, he led the Brewers to their first world title, sweeping the Dodgers along the way for good measure.
Before the season, many experts picked the Cubs to win the N.L. Central Division and Milwaukee’s odds to win the World Series were tied for 13th with the Padres. (The Mets’ odds were tied for fourth with the Blue Jays and Phillies.)
Venable, 44, took over the White Sox last year and failed to turn things around immediately (they went 60-102), but this season Chicago won 84 games, made the playoffs for the first time since 2021 and won a postseason series for the first time since the 2005 World Series.
The White Sox were only the third team (of 96) to make the playoffs a year after losing 100 games since the expansion era started in 1961. The others were the 2017 Twins and the 2024 Royals. Chicago’s odds to win the World Series before the season were tied for the worst with the Rockies and Nationals.
Three finalists were named prior to the announcement. Murphy beat out Don Mattingly of the Phillies and Walt Weiss of the Braves. Venable won over Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash and Boston’s Chad Tracy.
