What will Pat Murphy be like as Brewers manager? This prominent former player of his has an idea.

When Willie Bloomquist took over the Arizona State baseball program in the summer of 2021, he placed a call to his former coach and longtime mentor, Pat Murphy.

Under the guidance of Murphy, the Sun Devils became one of the premier teams in the nation in the 1990s and 2000s, producing major-leaguers such as Dustin Pedroia, Andre Ethier, Jason Kipnis and Bloomquist. But the program had fallen off precipitously since then and Murphy made sure to level his former pupil’s expectation.

“‘Willie, you’re not going to win right away,’” Murphy said, according to Bloomquist. “You have to understand that.”

“Bull----," Bloomquist told Murphy. "I’m going to win right now."

It wasn’t what Bloomquist wanted to hear.

It was, however, what Bloomquist needed to hear. And that, in a nutshell, is what to expect from Murphy, the new manager of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Murphy is ever the straight shooter. He loves to joke, but when it comes to the game of baseball he doesn't mess around. His communication is direct and unique. The Brewers hope and believe it will make him a successful replacement for Craig Counsell.

Now, more than two years later, the shoe is on the other foot for Murphy and Bloomquist. Murphy is the one taking over as the leader of a team. Bloomquist will be the one on the phone and preaching patience.

“Wanting success early on,” was Bloomquist's immediate response when asked Tuesday what the greatest challenge for Murphy would be.

“Wanting to prove that he can do this. For whatever reason, he hasn’t gotten this opportunity until now. Knowing Murph, there’s going to be some naysayers out there and he’s going to want to prove he can do this and be good at it right away."

It's unclear what the Brewers roster will look like next year. Will it be a similar group to the one that won 92 games in 2023? If not, can Murphy exercise the necessary patience to get through a myriad of learning curves on the field?

“Depending on what the Brewers' front office decides to do," Bloomquist said, "that could be a pretty big challenge to understand that, hey man, you didn’t get left the same team that’s been there the last four, five, six years. It might not happen overnight, but Murph will want it to. I think that’ll be the biggest challenge.”

How Pat Murphy has adapted as a communicator

In baseball, you either know Murphy directly or know someone who knows him, yet few have the same kind of track record with him as Bloomquist.

That gives Bloomquist – who also carries the perspective of a former big-league player, front office executive and high-profile college coach – a unique perspective on what to expect out of Murphy as a manager.

What Bloomquist sees off the bat is someone who has adapted.

“From when I played for him, I saw him evolve as he got older,” Bloomquist said. “When I played for him, he was still younger and full of piss and vinegar. Very intense, very hard-nosed, which I loved playing for. As he’s gotten older, he’s learned a lot and learned how to channel the intensity in different ways, which ultimately made him more successful in the long run.”

Murphy is as sharp-edged with his humor as they come. He’s, for better or for worse, able to go toe-to-toe with his jabs toward players with anyone. Over a long season, that can help keep things loose.

Yet Murphy also doesn’t have much tolerance for nonsense – “he likes things done the way he wants them done and he holds guys accountable,” as Bloomquist put it – when it comes to the actual game.

Murphy has had to adapt in his communication with players, as well. Different players respond to different forms of leadership and communication. In the college ranks, it’s a whole lot easier to make a one-size-fits-all approach work than in the big leagues.

“In his earlier days, he related with one type of player,” Bloomquist said. “He liked the hard-nose, grinder players. As he’s gotten older, he understands people a lot more, of all backgrounds, of all different ethnicities. He understands everyone very well and relates to them.”

Pat Murphy may no longer be the 'bull in a china cabinet,' but he has plenty of fire

Where the Brewers will see the greatest benefit of Murphy’s style of communication, Bloomquist believes, is through his ability to motivate players. Being able to get through to major-leaguers is somewhat of an art, which requires a manager to know precisely the timing and what kind of message works for each player.

"The best thing I took away from him was just what an outstanding motivator he was and that he got the most out of his players,” Bloomquist said. “That’s what he’s very good at.”

With Murphy, sometimes that message is one of tough love, even if he has mellowed out somewhat as he’s aged.

“Oh, believe me, that ain’t gonna change,” Bloomquist said. “It’s just a matter of how often it’s going to come out. He’s got an ability to control that more than he used to. Talk about evolving and maturing and getting older and smarter. He knows when he has to use that and when he doesn’t, whereas in the past he’d come right at you like a bull in a china cabinet and didn’t care who the hell it was, he was coming after you.

“He still has it in him. He’s still a tough Irishman. He definitely has the fire inside of him. He’s just able to control it a little bit more.”

That's who Murphy is. In this regard, he's a throwback personality. But that also leads to arguably the biggest question surrounding him as a manager in the modern game: How will Murphy blend an old-school approach to the game with the forward-thinking analytics and numbers that front offices expect to guide managers’ decisions?

It isn’t as if Murphy is oblivious or hostile to data. He, after all, had a front row seat as Counsell blended numbers with his own personal feel and, having worked for the organization for eight years, is surely aware of what the Brewers front office expects from its manager in that regard.

Watching Murphy handle that balance will be one of the top storylines of the 2024 season in Milwaukee.

“Yes, he’s old school,” Bloomquist said. “I think he’s smart enough to understand there’s a place for analytics in the game, but he’s smart enough to stand up for the fact you can’t run a game solely on analytics. You have to have a feel for your clubhouse, a feel for your players.

“There’s things where you have to go completely against the grain that the numbers don’t agree with but you have a gut feeling of doing stuff. That’s where he’ll excel. He’s going to know his players inside and out and he’s going to put them in the best situations possible.

“Will it always add up to what the numbers say? Probably not. But I think he’s smart enough to use the numbers to his advantage at times while he’s also not going to manage solely based on numbers.”

Can Murphy succeed in a similar situation to what he built at Arizona State?

One advantage of hiring Murphy, the Brewers believed internally, is that he brings continuity. He knows the players, staff and front office. Milwaukee is banking on continuity and, beyond that, on the belief that Murphy can continue the organization’s trend of getting the most out of its players.

Bloomquist feels that’s among Murphy’s strengths dating to his days at Arizona State.

“Not to say he didn’t sign talented players here because his track record speaks for itself, but he had a way of seeing inside a player to find what’s deeper,” Bloomquist said. “Take a guy like Dustin Pedroia, right? He doesn’t have the physical abilities where you stop and your jaw hits the ground. No, he’s a little freaking grinder.

“That’s the type of player Murph really loves and gets the most of. The Counsells, the Jason Kipnises, the Mike Leakes, the Kole Calhouns – guys who aren’t 6-4 and built like a Greek god. These guys are grinders and scrappers. Those are the guys that Murph wins with.”

Perhaps there is a parallel between the types of players Murphy used to build a successful college program and the ones that line the Brewers’ roster.

“You don’t have the giant payroll that other places have,” Bloomquist said. “You have to get the B, B+ type of talent and do well with them. I think, hopefully, that’s right up Murph’s alley. I’m sure he’s going to want a couple blue-chippers in there, but at the end of the day he’ll get the most out of his players regardless of what you give him.”

The Brewers sure hope so.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Willie Bloomquist thinks Pat Murphy can succeed as Brewers manager