The Milwaukee Brewers shocked Major League Baseball and the national media by winning 93 games and the National League Central Division in 2024. When Craig Counsell, the winningest manager in franchise history, spurned his hometown team to go lead the Chicago Cubs, many wrote the Brewers off. The decision to hire Pat Murphy as their next manager, too, was met with a great deal of criticism.
Less than a year later, though, the Brewers are in great shape. Not only did the Cubs finish 83-79 and in third place in the division, but Murphy won NL Manager of the Year in his first season at the helm, an honor neither Counsell nor any other manager in franchise history could achieve.
Craig Counsell Hired His Former First Base Coach with the Milwaukee Brewers
Perhaps it is no surprise that, after a disappointing first season in Chicago, Counsell is turning to some of his former coaches from his days in Milwaukee to help him out. At the end of October, it was reported that Quintin Berry was leaving the Brewers to be Counsell’s third base coach.
Berry had been a member of Milwaukee’s coaching staff since the very day he retired as a player in November of 2018. He took over as the Brewers first base coach in 2021 and served in that role for four seasons.
Of course, Counsell was the manager of the Brewers when Berry was hired.
Interestingly, Berry, who only played 132 games in parts of five Major League seasons, played for both the Brewers and the Cubs at various points in his career. He was a member of Chicago’s organization in 2015 and Milwaukee’s in 2017-18.
Craig Counsell Hired Former Milwaukee Brewers Hitting Coach, Andy Haines
Counsell, apparently, was not done adding some of his former Brewers coaches to his staff on the Cubs. Earlier this week, it was reported that he had also hired former Milwaukee hitting coach Andy Haines onto his staff:
” Jesse Rogers has reported on the radio that Andy Haines – formerly a hitting coach for the Cubs, Brewers (under Craig Counsell), and Pirates – was returning to the Cubs, but the position was not yet known.”
As one can see from this quote from Bleacher Nation, it is not yet known what role Haines will have on Counsell’s 2025 coaching staff. He served as the Brewers hitting coach from 2019-2021. Prior to that, he was the Cubs hitting coach in 2018.
Haines was just fired as the hitting coach of the Pittsburgh Pirates, with whom he had been coaching since 2022.
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