The Pirates are expected to hire Astros pitching coach Bill Murphy for the same position, reports Chandler Rome of The Athletic. Pittsburgh had a vacancy after former pitching coach Oscar Marin did not have his contract renewed. Assistant pitching coach Brent Strom is also not returning to the team.
Murphy has been a coach in Houston’s organization since 2016. He was first hired as a pitching coach for Rookie-level Greeneville. Murphy moved up to Single-A Tri-City in 2017, then to Double-A Corpus Christi the following season. He became an assistant pitching coach with the big league club in 2021, coincidentally working underneath Strom (then Houston’s pitching coach) in his first season. Strom stepped down at the end of that year, so Houston elevated Murphy and Josh Miller to co-pitching coach positions.
Houston’s pitching staff hadn’t missed a beat after Strom’s departure. They lead MLB with a 3.61 earned run average over the past four seasons. Only the Braves have a higher strikeout rate over that stretch. They dropped to 11th in ERA this year but led MLB with a 24.9% strikeout percentage. No team got more swinging strikes.
The Astros already had an excellent pitching staff by the time that Murphy and Miller took the lead positions. Hunter Brown’s emergence as an ace has come under their tutelage, however. The Astros navigated various injuries on the pitching staff over the past few years, with the likes of J.P. France, Ronel Blanco and Jason Alexander each turning in a solid or better season in that time.
Murphy gets to work with an arguably even more talented group of arms in Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes is one of the few pitchers in baseball who is better than Brown. Bubba Chandler, Braxton Ashcraft and Mike Burrows might all be in the Opening Day rotation, while Jared Jones could be back from elbow surgery in the second half. Mitch Keller has tailed off late after stellar first halves in three straight years. He’s unlikely to turn into an ace at age 30, but it’d be a boon for the Bucs if they can get him to sustain his #2/3 caliber production for an entire season.
The Astros will now need to decide whether to turn the full-time job to Miller or hire a new co-pitching coach. They’re already revamping their offensive instruction after moving on from co-hitting coaches Alex Cintrón and Troy Snitker.