Cubs' Craig Counsell and Brewers' Pat Murphy — 'friends for life' — to manage through rivalry

PHOENIX — Former Cubs pitcher Wade Miley, who’s living with Cubs catcher Yan Gomes during spring training, swung by the team’s facility with Gomes a couple of days before pitchers and catchers reported.

One of the first things Miley did was pop into the office of new manager Craig Counsell, who was his skipper with the Brewers in 2018 and again last season.

“Counce, how you doing?” Miley said, announcing his presence.

“What the hell are you doing here?” a confused Counsell replied.

At Brewers camp on Thursday, Miley and others had only positive things to say about the team’s manager from 2015 to 2023. It was a change in tone from the surprised — and stung — reactions from owner Mark Attanasio on down after the Cubs hired Counsell in a November blockbuster.

“I don’t want to talk too good about him because he’s on the other side now,” Miley said, “but the Cubs are in really good hands. He’s phenomenal. …

“Everybody’s prepared, but the way he prepares, he’s ready for every scenario, every situation. There’s a confidence about him. He’s run it through, played the game in his head before it even happens. He covers everything.”

Catcher William Contreras — Willson’s little brother — was a Silver Slugger winner in 2023, his first year in Milwaukee. Through a translator, he described Counsell as “constantly comfortable and giving you confidence, and he was always real and kept it 100% truthful.”

“It felt like he did something [to help] me every day, really every day,” shortstop Willy Adames said. “I’m going to miss him a lot.”

Perhaps no Brewer will miss seeing Counsell every day more than the new manager in the rival dugout, Pat Murphy. Whatever direction the Cubs-Brewers series takes in 2024 and beyond, the managers will remain, Murphy promises, like “brothers.”

“We’ve got a 38-year relationship,” Murphy said. “It can’t be the exact same type of relationship it’s been because we’re not working together, but we’ll be friends for life. …

“I’m close to his whole family. This truly has been a 38-year relationship, and it’ll keep going regardless of if we get in a brawl or whatever.”

Watching the two managers during a Cubs-Brewers bench-clearer would be a spectacle in itself. Even if one does occur, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll end up laughing about it.

Sue Ogrocki/AP

Murphy, 65, met Counsell, 53, on a baseball field long ago. Counsell was a scrawny high school player at the time and would play at Notre Dame with a young Murphy as his head coach. When Counsell became a first-time manager with the Brewers in 2015, he asked Murphy to join his staff. Murphy — then the Padres’ Triple-A manager — was all for it, but the Padres wouldn’t let him out of his contract. Later that season, he became the big-league club’s interim manager after Bud Black was fired.

In 2016, Murphy came aboard as Counsell’s bench coach. The eight years together were mostly wonderful.

“I’d never been an assistant before, never worked for anybody,” Murphy said. “It was an incredible experience for me. Maybe the thought in the beginning [was] that I would mentor him, but it turned out that he really mentored me. No doubt about it. I tell everybody, he’s done a lot more for me than I could ever do for him.”

It will be a big change for Counsell not to have Murphy around. Brewers reliever Hoby Milner predicts Counsell will find life without Murphy’s comic relief painfully boring. Murphy is quick with a playful barb and a maestro with nicknames; the wall-sized whiteboard in his office has dozens on it, one for nearly everyone already in camp. There’s a “Rock,” a “Buzz,” a “Wedge,” a “Muggsy,” a “Billy Bob.”

But there’s no Craig anymore.

“I couldn’t stand next to him [in the dugout] because we would argue the whole time, so I stood behind him,” Murphy said. “Standing behind him and watching this guy make decisions and orchestrate what he did was all I needed. It was just tremendous. And how he did it, how consistent he was, how focused he was.”

Murphy expressed sadness at Counsell’s recent loss of his mother, Jan, who died Feb. 8 at 79. He also looked forward to the Cubs’ visit to play the Brewers on Feb. 28.

“It’ll be great to see him,” Murphy said.

Opposing each other in a game will be a vastly different experience. After all those days and nights in the dugout together, each friend wanting a negative outcome for the other will take some getting used to.

“Oh, yeah,” Murphy said, “but that’s the way it has to be. It just has to be that way. And trust me, Craig knows how to compete.”