When last season ended, it appeared to outsiders that Pittsburgh Pirates pitching coach Oscar Marin’s job was safe. The Pirates finished seventh in the major leagues in ERA, and their young starting pitching, led by National League Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes, was the envy of many organizations.
However, discontent simmered beneath the surface. Many pitchers felt Marin was not pushing them enough and needed someone new to get them to the next level.
Those pitchers expressed their sentiments to general manager Ben Cherington and manager Don Kelly in exit interviews. Two days after the season ended, Marin was fired without a successor lined up.
“We went into a search with a totally open mind,” Cherington said. “Had a bunch of candidates, obviously.”
However, the candidate who stood out the most was Houston Astros pitching coach Bill Murphy. And that is who will oversee the Pirates’ pitching staff when spring training begins in February.
“Just a really, really strong reputation,” Cherington said of Murphy. “Obviously didn’t know Murph until we hired him, but you’re always out there trying to learn about people. His name is one that kept coming up over the years. People leave Houston. Pitchers go through there. You ask questions. His reputation had really grown over time. We knew he was valued by the Astros but didn’t know him.”
The Pirates are still getting to know Murphy, who attended MLB’s Winter Meetings earlier this week in Orlando. He continued to make a good impression on his new bosses.
“He’s got a ring, and you want people on your team who have rings,” Kelly said, referring to Murphy being part of the Astros’ coaching staff when they won the World Series in 2022.
The Pirates haven’t been to the World Series since beating the Baltimore Orioles in 1979, which is the last postseason series the franchise has won. If the Pirates are to get back to the pinnacle of baseball anytime soon, it will likely be because of a Skenes-led rotation that should include three other young right-handers next season in Bubba Chandler, Braxton Ashcraft, and Mike Burrows.
The Pirates are convinced that Murphy can make a promising pitching staff better.
“Felt like through the process, the combination of his experience with Houston, really strong competence that came through in the interview — he had a really clear presentation on what he’d be looking to do with certain pitchers and plan for that and evidence for that — and just a really clear communicator,” Cherington said. “Then, belief in the person, the background we did. A combination of those things.”