Pat Murphy wasn’t off by much. Just a couple hundred miles and five stops on the Acela train line.
The Milwaukee Brewers manager’s touching hot mic moment with star first baseman Jake Bauers
after the World Series intimated that Bauers was going to be a "rich (expletive)" and implored him to remember how they got down in Milwaukee when Bauers is "on that (expletive) Yankees team and playing for yourselves."Well, Bauers got plenty rich Friday, Nov. 13, agreeing to a four-year, $58 million deal. He’ll just be playing for the Boston Red Sox, not the New York Yankees.
Bauers' departure from the champion Brewers was somewhat expected. The club rehabilitated his career from the verge of retirement after cycling through six organizations, four at the major
league level, before Bauers figured things out in Milwaukee.
Yet the Brewers remain viable by keeping it moving and not placing bigger-dollar bets on 31-year-olds who might end up platoon players. The split was amicable, and so, too, is Murphy’s relationship with the Yankees.
Pat Murphy and Yankees: No hard feelings
As many observers could ascertain, "the Yankees" were a figurative term in Murphy’s address to Bauers, the stand-in for "any team with considerably more resources than the Brewers." In this era, the New York Mets or Los Angeles Dodgers are far more spendy than the Yankees, who have not won a World Series since 2009.
So, when Murphy apologized to Yankees club president Brian Cashman, the architect of New York’s sustained success understood.
"He took the time to realize that he said something that he regretted, that he's caught on a live mic," Cashman told reporters Tuesday at the general managers' meetings in Las Vegas. "He wanted to take the time, track us down over here at the lowly Yankees to make sure he would apologize for that, so that meant a lot to me."
Jake Bauers' journey: How Milwaukee saved his career
Bauers didn’t totally break the bank. But it's a nice raise for a guy who admitted to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that he was on the verge of retiring a couple years ago but needed health coverage for his expectant wife.
Bauers made $2.7 million in his final year of arbitration eligibility, a hard-fought journey to free agency. It took him nine years to reach six years of service time, a slog that included no major league appearances in 2020 or 2022.
Yet he found a comfort level in being uncomfortable in Milwaukee, under Murphy.
"I'm super grateful they traded for me. Super grateful to be here these last three years," Bauers told USA TODAY Sports as the season wound down. "At the same time, I think playing here can be a little bit uncomfortable, compared to some places.
"There's a lot of things that the staff, starting with Murph, and also the players in the clubhouse – we don’t let slide. That's a big key to our success. At the same time, it can be uncomfortable at times if you're not willing to face the man in the mirror."
Red Sox: What role will Jake Bauers play in Boston?
In Boston, Bauers may wear a lot of hats – and gloves.
The Red Sox already have an All-Star first baseman in Willson Contreras – brother of William, Bauers' World Series MVP teammate in Milwaukee. Yet there are plenty of at-bats to have at DH and Bauers also played 16 games in left field for the Brewers last season. He will bat somewhere in the middle of the lineup and is a nice hedge against any enduring health woesinvolving young left-handed slugger Roman Anthony.
The Red Sox are known to be shopping left fielder Jarren Duran, who is elite defensively but in an enduring offensive slump. Fenway Park’s tight quarters in left would be a passable place for Bauers to roam.
He'll aim to add thump – he broke out with 26 homers a year ago – to a Red Sox lineup that finished 18th in the majors in OPS. More important, he will have the gravitas that comes with being a World Series champion – and NLCS MVP.
Murphy won’t let him forget that, either.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pat Murphy said Jake Bauers would be a 'rich (expletive).' Here's how right he was
