PIRATES

Bill Murphy spent five seasons with the Astros' major-league staff, serving as assistant pitching coach in 2021 and as pitching coach from 2022-25. Now, he's back here in Houston for the first time since taking over as the Pirates' pitching coach. 

"It's nice to see a lot of familiar faces that have helped me in my career, people who helped me develop," Murphy said, mentioning the likes of Astros pitching coach Josh Miller and bench coach Omar Lopez as friends and mentors. "My first day as a Houston Astro, Josh was basically my boss, and to be able to work with him for a number of years -- five at the major level -- and come see him, and a number of different people, it's been great. Omar was my manager in Double-A, and the list goes on and on. But then also the players that I've had at the minor-league level and saw them at the major-league level, it's cool." 

Prior to the start of this series, Don Kelly described Murphy as a “huge asset for us,” with the way in which he builds relationships and goes about his business on a consistent basis. I asked Murphy about his transition into this role with a new organization today and he appears to be enjoying the process of learning more about his pitchers, their strengths and weaknesses, and helping them maximize their potential over time. 

"You are trying to learn how players are when they're good, and when they're struggling, what types of personalities you're dealing with," Murphy said. "When they are going good, what are they doing as opposed to when they aren't going as well? What potentially could that be? I think once you start to get more and more information, get more comfortable with that, you're able to assess problems. That takes time, too. You can talk about analytics, you can talk about all the video watching you want, but seeing it live in person and interacting with somebody is something that you can't replicate."