Pat Murphy has been a leader of men as manager of the Milwaukee Brewers. He's been able to take the 40-man roster and work some magic with his players.

People took notice. Specifically, the Baseball Writers' Association of America, who awarded Murphy with his second straight National League Manager of the Year award on Tuesday. Murphy joins an elite crew in MLB managers who have earned Manager of the Year honors for a second consecutive season.

Guess who joins Murphy in the club? Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, who is a close friend of Murphy, won the American League Manager of the Year Award. Murphy and Vogt join legendary Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox (2004-05) and the Tampa Bay Rays' Kevin Cash (2020-21) in winning two straight managerial honors. 

"I've done this for a lot of years now, and I think getting the input of the manager is really important in all of the decisions," Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said on Tuesday at the General Managers meetings in Las Vegas.

"I think Murph does a great job with us, giving us some guidance and giving his perspective on how the player will fit with the team," Arnold said. "His input, not just with the roster, but just kind of how we play the game was really special this year.”

"We had the right ‘who’ in the room," Murphy said. "We had guys that are aware and hungry, and that makes the manager look good at the end of the day."

What type of manager is Murphy? One who has earned the respect of his players. Early in the season, the Brewers recalled Andrew Vaughn from Triple-A when Rhys Hoskins went on the Injured List. According to a story from MLB.com, Murphy reportedly told Vaughn that if he swung wildly at pitches out of the strike zone, he'd get sent back to Triple-A.

Well, Vaughn didn't swing much at all at pitches out of the strike zone. Murphy reportedly told Vaughn this without even saying hello to him at all.

"I’m just hopeful that I can impact players in my own little way," Murphy said. "But there’s a lot of coaches on our staff that do it a lot better than I do. I think I get far too much credit with things like this."

With his players totally "buying in" to what Murphy tells them, the Brewers are headed in the right direction. 

There have been some tough seasons in Milwaukee and Brewers fans have suffered through them. But Murphy's mindset is toward winning consistently. His efforts are shown in his players' efforts in the field and at the plate.

In the BWAA voting, Murphy got 27 of 30 possible first-place votes and 141 total points to top Terry Francona of the rival Cincinnati Reds (two first-place votes, 49 points) and Rob Thomson of the Philadelphia Phillies (one first-place vote, 32 points).