Assessing the Pirates’ Hiring of Bill Murphy
p/c: Kirby Lee
The Pittsburgh Pirates filled their pitching coach position Monday evening, as Chandler Rome of The Athletic reported that the Bucs have hired Houston Astros pitching coach Bill Murphy.
Murphy replaces Oscar Marin, who spent six seasons as Pirates pitching coach from 2020-2025.
The 36-year-old Murphy has been in the Astros’ organization since 2016. He joined Houston as an assistant pitching coach in 2021, before becoming pitching coach, alongside Joshua Miller during the 2022 season.
Since Murphy’s tenure as Astros pitching coach, the team has a 3.61 ERA; the best mark in baseball.
According to Chandler Rome, Murphy is bilingual, and would make several trips to the Dominican Republic to visit the Latin pitchers, such as Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, and Luis García.
Prior to joining Houston’s big league staff, Murphy was the minor league pitching coordinator.
Assessment: The addition of Murphy as the new pitching coach is objectively a terrific hire by the Pirates.
Murphy has a lengthy track record of developing pitchers in the Astros’ organization, including Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown; both of whom turned into All-Star level starters.
While Paul Skenes certainly doesn’t need any further development to his game, Murphy will look to unlock more potential, with Bubba Chandler, Jared Jones, Braxton Ashcraft, Mike Burrows, and Hunter Barco.