Tom Ricketts Paid $40,000,000 Just So Pat Murphy Could Win Manager Of The Year For The Milwaukee Brewers

MLB.com - The NL winner Murphy also received 27 first-place votes, while the Padres’ Mike Shildt finished second with one first-place vote and 19 second-place votes and the Mets’ Carlos Mendoza finished third with one first-place vote and six second-place votes.

“When this all happened,” Murphy said of replacing Counsell, “I was just very grateful. I’m just grateful to go to work every day and show up and try to impact somebody.”

I don't want to complain too hard online because I think that's super lame but at the same time it's complete fucking bullshit that the Cubs fired David Ross to pay Craig Counsell's a historic salary only to have the Brewers replacement win NL Manager of the Year. I want to be clear about that. Makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it. 

There's torment and pain and torture, and then there's being a present day Chicago sports fan. It's actually kinda impressive how sick and twisted it is when you really think about it. 

And obviously congrats to Pat Murphy (Murph) on a remarkable debut season with the Brewers. There's obviously something in the clubhouse that allows such underpaid and unknown average players perform at such a high level. They average 90 wins a season over the last 8 years while averaging close to $110M in payroll which ranks about 22 of 30 MLB teams. Most of us assumed that was because of Counsell's secret sauce, and Jed Hoyer's decision to fire David Ross to replace him with Craig was seen as further validation. This was a slam dunk move. 

Now one year later, it sure seems like a waste of $40,000,000 for two reasons: (1) the Cubs were categorically disappointing under Craig Counsell and (2) the Brewers were actually better under Pat Murphy. We somehow let the Cubs get worse while the Brewers got better while still paying over $10,000,000 in 2024 manager salaries. That's actually fucking crazy to think about. 

Again though. I don't want to complain online about how grown men coach sports. I just think it's important to point out that I feel like a complete moron for blindly considering Craig Counsell to be the best manager in MLB by a landslide. Maybe it was more David Stearns magic in Milwaukee, especially considering the Mets actively passed on any legitimate deal with Counsell. Really makes you think long and hard about whether or not the Cubs are cursed, unlucky or old-fashioned stupid. 

Personally I think it's some combination of everything. There's obviously a bigger curse brewing. Obviously there's a lot of bad luck and even a fair amount of stupid decisions. But it's not that simple to fix because the Cubs have become distinctly average while refusing to sign veteran free agents out of principle. The way this is headed, it may never get better in your lifetime. Two decades from now you could find a perfectly even .500 franchise and even that feels ambitious. 

So again. Congratulations to Murph on winning Manager of the Year and reinforcing my own personal futility. 

In other news, the Cubs announced two signficant roster moves today: 

- Patrick Wisdom DFA'd which blows because he's an easy guy to cheer for and keeps a clean mustache. He also mashes left handed pitching and can give you legitimate power off the bench with little notice. He's always ready and I like the veteran bench presence that comes with his loose personality and carefree California attitude. Also a good golfer and noted family man, all of which amounts to just a good dude that will be missed. Especially knowing the team is far from elite which makes me more conditioned to want likeable people in the uniform. Patrick Wisdom is very much that guy. 

- TRADE

Eli Morgan should be a reliable setup man with contract control thru 2027. He had a sub-2.00 ERA last year in 40+ innings but saw a dip in strikeouts from career numbers. That also came with a slight dip in HR's surrendered, so it could be a function of intent. I'll learn more as I see him more but initial reaction is we like a 4-seam fastball/slider combo in late game situations. We don't love his fastball velocity but he's got elite amounts of movement for a 4-seamer. The changeup is a nice touch and compliments a slider that features less horizontal & vertical break than a traditional MLB pitch. The end result is a fastball that moves more, a slider that moves awkwardly and a changeup that kinda looks like both. 

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There's still a long way to go for us to even take the field against Milwaukee. But this move is a step in the right direction and that's a good thing for the Chicago Cubs