This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy's Brewers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
MILWAUKEE -- If you thought Pat Murphy had deep roots with former Brewers manager Craig Counsell, wait until you hear how far back he goes with the team’s new lead hitting coach.
“I played against Al LeBoeuf in 1983 in the Carolina League,” Murphy said this week, after the Brewers promoted LeBoeuf and Eric Theisen from Triple-A Nashville to the Majors to make a three-man crew of hitting coaches with incumbent Connor Dawson. “I’ve known Al and his abilities for a long time. Since I came into the organization, I’ve always been fond of Al and have always respected how he goes about it, how he treats people and how he looks at the game.
“I was excited to be able to offer him this opportunity. His story, and what he’s meant to the organization, it was a great thrill to me.”
Hitting coach was a one-man job for a long time. Now, the vast majority of teams have at least two hitting coaches. The Brewers have had two since 2021.
With three, is there any worry about a muddled message? LeBoeuf said he doesn’t expect that to be the case, since he and Theisen did the job together last year in Nashville. Murphy doesn’t see a problem, either.
“The way the game has evolved, these players all [listen to many voices],” Murphy said. “First of all, they have each other, and they're all going through it together. And then they have their private hitting coaches in the offseason. Some of them have multiple. Some of them have other influences in their baseball life.
“And you know what? I don't discourage that. Nobody goes out and seeks advice or seeks coaching because they want to get worse. Everybody's trying to get better. So I think having enough voices, having enough bodies, having all the different kinds of nuances and areas of offense covered is the way to go.
“Connor has been in the Major League game now for a couple years, and he understands preparation for Major League pitching. ET [Theisen] has a tremendous understanding of the swing and the biomechanics and what a hitter needs to do in his approach. I think it's a really good combination of three guys.”
This marks one of Murphy’s first chances to put a mark on his staff, since the Brewers opted to retain the rest of their coaches when Counsell moved on to manage the Cubs at this time last year. That was about continuity, which the Brewers believe has played a significant role in their sustained success over recent regular seasons. Remember, they’ve played only two games -- two! -- that didn’t have any bearing on the standings since the start of 2017.
Murphy did make one significant change by shifting Jim Henderson from the bullpen to the role of assistant pitching coach and calling up longtime catching coordinator Charlie Greene to serve as bullpen coach. Then, like now, the promotions came from within.
So, the hitters will probably hear a familiar message to the one they heard in the Minors, where the Brewers have stressed strike-zone discipline. That paid off in 2024, when the club took a significant step forward as an offense, jumping from 17th of 30 teams in on-base percentage in 2023 to fourth in '24, and finishing tied with the Dodgers for the second-lowest chase rate.
“It kind of makes the transition a little easier, because they know who I am, and they know what I'm about,” LeBoeuf said. “They know I'm about them. And as far as a dynamic of us three working together, we all have the same common goal. That'll be a non issue. That won't be hard to navigate at all.”
As for the rest of the coaching staff, stay tuned. One of the side effects of sustained success is that other teams try to swoop in and hire talent away, and GM Matt Arnold and Murphy have been busy this week trying to keep the group together, including highly-regarded first base coach Quintin Berry and pitching coaches Chris Hook and Henderson.
“We're not trying to hold anybody back,” Murphy said. “That's all part of being in it for the right reasons, being able to help guys move ahead in their careers, if you can. In a lot of these cases, we want to keep them and help them grow right here with us. But good people get poached.”