Once again, Pat Murphy could be a candidate for manager of the New York Mets

The electronic sign-stealing scandal that rocked baseball this week has so far had wide-reaching consequences across three different franchises. The Houston Astros were obviously hit the hardest, losing multiple draft picks, having a hefty financial fine levied against them, and their owner dismissing manager AJ Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow following the announcement of their suspensions. The Red Sox also released their manager Alex Cora, who was a coach with the Astros and heavily involved with the abuses before deploying a similar scheme in Boston once he was hired.

Yesterday, the Mets announced that they were parting ways with Carlos Beltran, who was hired as skipper earlier this winter but did not even get the chance to manage a single contest. While he was an active player with Houston, Beltran was apparently one of the ring-leaders in the scam that helped the Astros win a World Series title in 2017. Once all of the details came out, the Mets and Beltran “mutually agreed to part ways”, although the reporting makes it sound more like that if Beltran didn’t agree to step down, he would have been fired.

So now that leaves three teams who need to fill sudden managerial vacancies with less than a month to go until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training. And according to Robert Murray, one of those franchises may again pursue someone from the coaching staff of the Milwaukee Brewers:

As Murray states, the Mets held multiple interviews with Pat Murphy earlier this offseason and he was one of the four finalists for the position before New York ultimately settled on Beltran to replace Mickey Callaway in the dugout. Murphy has served as the bench coach for Craig Counsell since the beginning of the 2016 season, and he previously served as the interim manager for the San Diego Padres in 2015. Prior to his MLB experience, Murphy spent time as the head baseball coach at the University of Notre Dame as well as Arizona State University.

The Mets obviously have a level of familiarity already built up with Murphy after their original search back in the early stages of the offseason, so it is no surprise that he would emerge as a potential candidate to fill their new opening. Eduardo Perez was another finalist for the position back in November, and other possibilities could include New York’s current quality coach Luis Rojas and Washington coach Tim Bogar (among others), both of whom interviewed with the team before Beltran was hired.