Brewers: 7 Manager Candidates To Take Over Now That Craig Counsell Is Gone

Craig Counsell is gone. It's a shocking development that leaves the Brewers in search of a manager for the first time since they fired Ken Macha in 2010 and hired Ron Roenicke. When Roenicke was fired in 2015, Counsell was immediately installed as the permanent manager.

Now the Brewers are left with a vacancy in the manager's spot and they're a little late to the party in terms of interviewing candidates. Stephen Vogt has been hired by the Cleveland Guardians, Carlos Mendoza has been hired by the Mets, and Bob Melvin has gone to the Giants. All the other teams with vacancies are weeks into the interviewing process.

With Craig Counsell now out of the picture, who do the Brewers get to manage their team in 2024? Here are some of the candidates they could pursue, including both internal and external options.

Brewers manager candidate #1 - Bench coach Pat Murphy

Pat Murphy is arguably the top internal candidate for the job. He's been Counsell's right hand man since 2016, is well respected and loved in the Brewers clubhouse, and is deserving of an opportunity as a manager.

Everything you can do as a coach in the game of baseball, Murphy has done it. College coach, minor league manager, big league manager, big league bench coach, you name it. He's as experienced a baseball mind you could find and he's already in the organization. If the Brewers don't find an external candidate to their liking, promoting Murphy from bench coach to manager would be a logical direction.

Murphy may be the choice if the Brewers want to get a new manager named as quickly as possible. If they aren't too interested in looking externally, Murphy could soon be the name. If the process drags on, it could become less and less likely that Murph ends up with the job.