From new signings to award winners, big salaries remain unattainable for most captains. What is this due to?
When they both won Manager of the Year for the first time in 2024, Pat Murphy and Stephen Vogt They talked about attending the baseball writers’ annual dinner in New York to receive the awards in costume.
The two knew each other from Vogt’s two-year stint as a player in Milwaukee, where Murphy was then the bench coach. Early on, Murphy, now manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, proposed dressing up as King Jaffe Joffer from “Coming to America,” and Vogt, the manager of the Cleveland Guardians, suggested he scatter rose petals as they took the stand. They scrapped that idea and opted for the blue and orange tuxedos from “Dumb and Dumber.” Finally, they agreed that it would probably be best to behave seriously.
“You’ll probably win ten more awards like this,” Murphy told Vogt. “This will be the last one for me.”
It took only a year for that prediction to be completely discredited. This year, Murphy and Vogt became the second managers in each league to win the award in consecutive seasons. And not only were they again recognized for their work turning small-market teams into division champions, but both were believed to have contracts that would expire after the 2026 season.
Vogt, in fact, is not a tightrope coach. He signed a new multi-year contract with the Guardians after the 2024 season that was never made public, according to ESPN sources. Murphy’s contract, meanwhile, expires after the 2026 season, putting the Brewers in a similar situation to 2023, when Craig Counsell’s contract ended and he left Milwaukee to join the Chicago Cubs for $40 million over five years.
Managers’ salaries have historically been below those of their counterparts in the NFL and NBA. Counsell’s $8 million annual salary is second only to Dave Roberts’ $8.1 million with the Los Angeles Dodgers, a figure that represents less than half of what Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid ($20 million) and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr ($17.5 million) earn annually, the highest-paid coaches in their respective leagues. Among the nine managers hired in this winter’s wave of changes, several of the new signings, according to sources, earn close to a million dollars.
The role of the manager has evolved over the last three decades, with decision-making power over personnel definitively moving to the team boards; However, of the twelve teams that made the playoffs in 2025, half were led by managers whose salaries are among the highest in baseball, including Roberts, Counsell, Alex Cora of the Boston Red Sox, Terry Francona of the Cincinnati Reds, Aaron Boone of the New York Yankees and AJ Hinch of the Detroit Tigers.
The Brewers won more games than any other team in baseball this season before being swept in the National League Championship Series by the Dodgers, who ultimately became World Series champions. Leading the team was Murphy, who has won the NL Central title in each of his two seasons and told ESPN that he hopes to remain in Milwaukee long-term.
“I’m lucky to have a job in the Major Leagues. Really,” Murphy said. “I owe a lot to the Milwaukee Brewers. I really do. I hope they love me.”
The hiring of Murphy after Counsell’s departure broke the trend of younger coaches in this last cycle. Murphy, 67, spent most of his college coaching career at Arizona State and Notre Dame before joining the San Diego Padres organization in 2010 and spending five seasons as a manager in the minor leagues. Following the 2015 season, he joined Counsell – whom he had coached at Notre Dame – as the bench coach of the Milwaukee Brewers.
For the next eight years, Murphy was a key advisor during one of the best periods in Brewers history. With a keen sense of humor and a deep knowledge of baseball, he earned the trust of the team, which led to the Brewers entrusting him with the reins, and they haven’t slowed down since he took over.
“I’ve learned to trust the players. I’ve learned to trust the coaching staff. I’ve learned to trust the front office,” Murphy said. “It’s not about me. It’s something that, luckily, I discovered late in my career. If you forget about yourself and focus on what’s best for everyone, you tend to collaborate. You tend to be more flexible, more open-minded. And that’s precisely what I’ve adopted.”
Modern coaches oversee much more than in-game decisions. They are often an extension of the team’s front office, ensuring that the organization’s priorities are implemented across the major leagues. With increasingly numerous coaching staffs, always delicate locker room dynamics and constantly changing squads, they are far from being the mere executors of strategies that are often attributed to them in an era increasingly marked by data analysis.
Murphy is a mix of old and new school, mastering the important metrics while still brimming with personality. He likes to call people names, whether they’re Brewers players and front office members or even journalists. During games, he carries what he calls “pocket pancakes,” which are exactly what they sound like: pancakes that he puts in his pocket and pulls out for a snack mid-game.
His time as manager of the Brewers almost did not come to fruition. In 2022, he considered returning to college baseball.
“I made the right decision,” Murphy said. “I found my place. If I continue doing this for ten more years, I would like to do it in Milwaukee.”
