MLB WINTER MEETINGS

December 9, 2025

Pat Murphy

Milwaukee Brewers

Press Conference

PAT MURPHY: What are we talking about?

Q. Freddy Peralta.

PAT MURPHY: You want to talk about Freddy. Great young man.

Q. What do you think the future holds for him and the Brewers?

PAT MURPHY: I watched some of these contracts out here, and he's due to be a wealthy man, have a lot of acreage if he wants it, maybe beach-front acreage, wherever he wants it in multiple islands.

Q. Do you think he'll stay?

PAT MURPHY: Do I think he'll stay?

Q. Yeah.

PAT MURPHY: I mean, you've got to look at that whole situation. I hope that he does because I love being part of his career. I've seen him every pitch in his big leagues he's made. And it's personal to me. And I love the man. And I hope he's a Brewer.

Q. Just knowing your marketplace and how astute your front office has always been --

PAT MURPHY: You have them as "astute," our front office? I don't use that word with them. I don't refer to them as astute.

Q. They hired you.

PAT MURPHY: Like I said, they're not that astute. (Laughter).

Q. I mean, it's not fair to ask you whether he's going to be with the team or not, but when they do talk to you about it, obviously you want to have him. But is there, you know, looking at the Milwaukee market, does it make sense to kick all the tires?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, I think they know what they're doing, they know what they're doing. My role is to take whatever guys we have. I hope Freddy is one of them. And I really do. I hope he's one of them.

Q. You've been through that with Devin Williams, with Corbin Burnes, where the team does the long-term thing. Are those hard, when you're the guy who is in charge of winning today?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, they're hard. They're hard. You could say -- yeah, it's hard. What you don't know -- you know the player, you know what he brings and you know your connection with him. And when he's not there for you, you're like, God, I miss him.

And then you just turn the page, keep going. That's part of our world.

Q. On the flipside, you know you're going to have Woody this year, this coming year. How big is that for you guys, do you think?

PAT MURPHY: I think it's great. Woody is part of the fabric. And I wouldn't know what it was like to be in the locker room without Freddy -- or woody or Freddy. Yeah, it will be great having him. Great having him.

Q. Did that surprise you?

PAT MURPHY: No. Woody's not about how much money I can make. Woody is about, he knows the scenario he wants to be in, and that's special. But Woody will live in Mississippi in the offseason and he'll raise a great family and he'll impact that community. And I think his first priority is not, how much money I can make.

Q. What do you think about Brice getting named to Team USA, pretty cool?

PAT MURPHY: Not surprise. People are recognizing what you guys came to me with a couple of years ago, saying isn't Turang going to be something special. That was a little shot at Todd.

Q. He's such an unassuming, sort of, humble guy. How does something like this, (indiscernible) Aaron Judge, the best of the best, affect a guy like that?

PAT MURPHY: Who are you talking about?

Q. Turang. He's not the flashy --

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, he is. Turang's flashy, in his own way. He's got tats everywhere. He's flashy. Look at me. He's great.

I love that kid, man. He's a ball player. You can see it. You can smell it. The best is yet to come for him. He's got so much to give.

Q. (Indiscernible) you coached a Major League Baseball program. What do you think about (indiscernible), the mindset of what that situation is like?

PAT MURPHY: The Giants are a great organization. They've proven it over time. Buster Posey was part of it. One of the greatest era is in Giants history, maybe the greatest. And Buster Posey knows what he's doing. He knows culture. He understands.

And the manager is really responsible a lot for the culture, a lot of it. He understands it. And I think that they did their research. They have people around. They will make this transition as good as it can be. And I think it will be great.

And they have a great team. I like their chances of doing well.

Q. What do you see the biggest growth out of Connor Dawson, and how excited are you to see him go through (indiscernible)?

PAT MURPHY: Connor Dawson is a great young mind. He also has a flare for understanding more than just the numbers, you know what I mean? He understands people. He loves Kansas City. He's die-hard Kansas City everything.

And, yeah, I think it's his dream job. I think he'll be impactful. He's been part of a lot of young players. I know some of your players well. You've got one of the best young talents in the game in Whit, and you have other great players and you have great leaders and characters, like Salvy. Connor will be a big impact.

Q. You did the impossible last year. You were at the top of the league in runs scored without hitting a lot of home runs.

PAT MURPHY: We had enough.

Q. But I mean, you weren't considered a home run team, right? So with that in mind --

PAT MURPHY: I hope we are this year.

Q. That was my question. Can you replicate scoring 800 runs without more home runs?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, I mean, every feat or whatever can be repeated. None of them are easy. None of them are usually done the same way with the same scenario and everything else.

But the bottom line is to win games, you know what I mean, and try to win as many games as you can and use your 27 outs the way you use your 27 outs effectively, and it all kind of snowballs together. And there's a few opportunities here, and you take advantage of those opportunities. And then, boom, before you know it, you've won the game.

Hitting a home run is oftentimes what the pitcher throws you and how you put him in that position to throw you that. Maybe the baserunner had something to do with it. There's so many little things that affect that pitch that's going to be thrown and how you react to it, your readiness for it.

So that's what creates home runs. I always say home runs are thrown, and if you look at the breakdown of all the home runs this year, the majority of them are where? In the middle. Right? So when you get a pitch in the middle, you're ready, there's not a Major League player that can't hit a home run. So your propensity to do it often is enhanced when the ball's down the middle. So try to get it so those pitchers throw it down the middle.

Q. Thanks for using "propensity."

PAT MURPHY: Propensity, great word. Thank you. Meaning, I'm showing I have a little --

Q. That you really do have --

PAT MURPHY: While I don't show it very often.

Q. I believe I saw an interview with you recently where you said something to the effect of you weren't ready to go straight from the college game to be a Major League manager --

PAT MURPHY: Hell no, nor am I ready right now.

Q. Is there anything, though, about the game in general, baseball in general, in that time, that makes that transition more manageable someone like Tony?

PAT MURPHY: I think the college game is so good that talent-wise, mentality-wise, I think he'll make -- and the Major League game is younger now. There's less -- just the cultures are different.

There's less of the old-school, earn-your-stripes rookie. There's less of that nonsense. So I think his transition -- again, and Posey knows what he's doing. So it's like he's going to make that transition. He's going to get it so that transition is easy. And I think he's probably 10 times smarter than I was at the time.

But I don't think that's going to be an issue at all. And I think they have a great team. I mentioned it earlier, I think they have a great team.

Q. When you have -- you're a young club, does it feel a little collegiate sometimes in the dugout, the interactions?

PAT MURPHY: Collegiate? No, it doesn't feel collegiate. It feels like high schoolish sometimes. (Laughter).

No, having young players, it's such a beautiful energy and such, for lack of a better word, there's such an innocence that you love about it. They're so hungry. To keep them hungry is the key. How do they stay hungry?

If you had a full meal and had dessert and then I called you and said, hey, man, the AC, let's go get some In-N-Out, you'd be, like, bro, I'm stuffed.

It's kind of like players, sometimes when they've gotten paid or sometimes when they've had a certain level of success, or maybe they've got something distracting them, it's hard to be that pure, hungry for a win. I'm going to help the team win, whatever that takes.

It's hard, but that youth, I think, adds to it. So I like having young players, aware players, aware about winning baseball.

Q. That topic of winning baseball, a lot is heralded, the team was heralded for the game feel, execution and fundamentals. How do you describe the state of those things in baseball in Major League Baseball right now?

PAT MURPHY: The state of them on our team isn't real good. People thought we were just so fundamentally sound and we did all these things so special and all this kind of stuff. And I would be, like, are you talking about us? I was a little more critical of it.

No, I mean, we're just kind of doing whatever we've got to do to win the game, you know what I mean? However we need to get the runner to the next base, or however we need to line up our pitching, we just do what we've got to do.

And it's been interpreted as we're playing old-school baseball or we're playing this certain type. But if you don't hit homers as much, you don't have guys that have that track record of doing that and they don't understand it yet, you do what you've got to do.

And it's really about who they are, which makes us play that certain style. It's who they are. That's how they play baseball. And you put a bunch of guys like that on the field, it translates into kind of staying relentless and never giving up and not just looking at the scoreboard, but just realizing, just keep the pressure on and everybody translates that.

Q. When you acquired Caleb Durbin, did you see him being the integral part that he is today?

PAT MURPHY: Absolutely. I mean, I think I announced that, like, "Jumpstreet." I love this kid. I watched him play in the fall league. I never met him. Watched him play in the fall league couple of games and walked away saying, damn, I wish we could get that kid. Then we heard about him, and would love to have him. Love the kid.

Q. How overall do you feel about your infield depth beyond Durbin and (indiscernible) starters?

PAT MURPHY: In the big leagues, you never feel that good about any depth because you're one move or one injury or one divided attention away from having no depth -- so, especially with young players that are a little bit volatile. You know, I never feel totally comfortable with infield depth or outfield depth or catching depth or pitching depth, ever.

That's just how I look at it. Comfortable, never. I'm always thinking how are we going to win another game. How? That's kind of how I'm built, how I'm wired.

Q. Going back to the WBC, are you expecting Contreras or anybody else to potentially take part of that for their countries as well?

PAT MURPHY: Of course. Sal will play -- what do I call them? Call them something. But, anyways, Sal will play, I'm sure. They'll want him to play. Chourio, right?

Q. You would think. William?

PAT MURPHY: You'd think. William for sure.

Q. Does it make you nervous about William and that finger and having got that fixed?

PAT MURPHY: No, I'm not going to worry about any of that. We'll have a bunch of guys.

Q. You had 15 I think with the minor leaguers?

PAT MURPHY: I think Great Britain wants Durbin to play. That's what I heard, something like that.

Q. The challenge system's going to be implemented. Do you have early strategy thoughts on that?

PAT MURPHY: I don't know enough about it, like I want to know. Obviously I know how it works, and we did it in Spring Training, blah, blah, blah. I want to dive in even more get as much information as I can to try to figure out what the best way to handle it is and bring it to the club.

What I love is it's player-driven, you know what I mean? And it requires the players to embrace it, understand it, understand the strategy of it. It's all good for our game, that's what I'm thinking.

Q. Is your thought right now to try to limit which of those players is the quarterback in that?

PAT MURPHY: I don't think you can do that. I think you have to trust your players. You've got 26 active. You've got to trust them. You try to educate them, try to give them as much information as possible. We'll see how it rolls.

Q. Along the lines of nontraditional manager -- I'm curious, with some of the nontraditional -- you were asked about the nontraditional manager and teams maybe thinking outside of the box. I'm curious what you consider to be the most important part of the role of the big league manager in today's game?

PAT MURPHY: I think the most important role is, yeah, more support role is impacting players, can you impact players in a positive way? I think that's the most important role.

I don't know, is that leadership? I don't know, maybe. It can be a lonely job. It can be lonely, in that to truly try to do that, impact players and all that kind of stuff, you're not always the most popular or you're not always taking the safe way. Sometimes there's a little risk involved.

Q. Last year in spring we talked so much about the shortstop, second base, Joey and Brice?

PAT MURPHY: Sal. Played Sal.

Q. Play Sal at third?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, Chourio in the infield.

Q. Short and second, are you set on that now? Or is that still something -- if Brice had the whole, had all the time to build up or whatever?

PAT MURPHY: I think that most likely depending on -- anything can happen between now and the start of spring. But Joey is as good a defender at short as there is in the game. I don't know how the defensive metrics -- but was he close?

Q. Yeah. He was (indiscernible).

PAT MURPHY: Was he? So that's not something to just scoff at, like, oh, we need more offensive production. Guess what? He's going to give it to us. He's going to give us more. There's no question. The kid is very capable.

And he's going to be a really good offensive player. And obviously his confidence a little bit is shaken and people talk about it a lot. So that's affecting him.

But Joey is going to be way better. And he's a great defender. We can only hope that he can defend like that again. And then we've got the second baseman that's pretty damn good too. I don't think that changes.