Brewers announce pitching, bench coach hires

The Milwaukee Brewers are shaking up their coaching staff for the 2016 season. The team announced that Derek Johnson has been hired as the team's pitching coach, while Pat Murphy will be the new bench coach. Bullpen coach Lee Tunnell will also be retained for the coming season.

“We are excited to announce the additions of Derek and Pat to our coaching staff and that Lee will return,” said general manager David Stearns. “Combined with Ed (Sedar) and Darnell (Coles), we believe that we are assembling a staff that embodies the type of culture that we are looking to instill throughout our organization.”

The 44-year-old Johnson  joins the Brewers from the Chicago Cubs, where he served as pitching coordinator from 2013-15. Prior to that role, Johnson enjoyed 11 seasons as the pitching coach at Vanderbilt University from 2002-12. Over his last three seasons at Vanderbilt, he served as associate head coach in addition to pitching coach. 

The 56-year-old Murphy spent the previous six seasons in the San Diego Padres organization, joining the Club as a special assistant to the baseball operations department in 2010. He went on to manage at Class-A Eugene (2011-12), Triple-A Tucson (2013) and Triple-A El Paso (2014-15)
before being named Padres interim manager last June 16. Along with his professional managing experience, Murphy had successful college stints as the head coach at the University of Notre Dame (1988-94) and Arizona State University (1995-2009). While at Notre Dame, he coached current Brewers manager Craig Counsell.