Brewers manager Pat Murphy rips 2023 Yankees in World Series celebratory exchange with Jake Bauers

Winning World Series titles used to be an October tradition for the Yankees.

Now it’s catching strays from the World Series winner.

On this occasion, it was from the manager of the World Series champion Brewers.

After his club closed out the Rays in Wednesday night’s Game 5 at Tropicana Field, Pat Murphy met Jake Bauers during the on-field celebration. Bauers, a former Yankee and free-agent-to-be who played a starring role in Milwaukee’s postseason run, gave Murphy the ball from the last out.

“You’re going to be a rich [expletive] but just remember when you were on that horse [expletive] Yankees team and you guys were all playing for yourself?” Murphy said in a video clip that went viral. “Just remember, say ‘This is the way we used to do it.’ ”

Bauers responded to Murphy by twice saying, “You ain’t getting rid of me that easy.”

Bauers played 84 games for the 2023 Yankees, a club that finished 82-80 and missed the playoffs, and was traded to the Brewers that offseason for minor-league outfielders Jace Avina and Brian Sanchez.

Bauers, 31, who recorded the final out of the World Series when he caught second baseman Brice Turang’s throw to first, hit .266 with 26 homers this season. He continued that success in the postseason, especially in the Brewers’ four-game sweep of the two-time defending champion Dodgers in the NLCS, earning MVP honors in that series.

The Yankees were swept by the Rays in the ALDS, extending their championship drought to 17 years.

After their most recent World Series appearance in 2024, a five-game loss to the Dodgers, the Yankees absorbed more shots while still on the mat.

“We were saying every single game, ‘Just let them throw the ball to the infield. They can’t make a play,’ ” Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly, who did not pitch in the World Series that season, said on his podcast shortly after the series. “It’s well-known. We all knew. I mean, we’re the Dodgers, we know every little detail.”

Part of every opposing team’s postseason scouting report on the Yankees during the Aaron Boone Era, which dates to 2018, has been some form of what Kelly was enunciating: Put the ball in play and pressure their defense.

Murphy’s comments to Bauers were a reference to the one season in Boone’s nine years as manager in which the Yankees did not make the playoffs.

The 2023 Yankees started the season strong but, with nowhere near the pitching staff and overall depth of this year’s club, they crumbled after captain Aaron Judge suffered a right toe injury when he crashed into the rightfield fence during a June 3 game at Dodger Stadium.

Bauers hit .202 with 12 homers and a .693 OPS in 272 plate appearances that season for the Yankees.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.