While his father Pat Murphy was managing the Milwaukee Brewers in the World Series, Kai Murphy was taking at-bats for the Águilas de Mexicali in the Liga Mexicana del Pacífico. Then the Águilas did something you don’t see every day: they gave him special leave to cross the border and be with his dad on the biggest stage in baseball.
A Leave That No Stat Can Measure
The LMP’s 2026-27 season had just gotten underway and Kai was already on Mexicali’s roster when the news hit: his father was taking the Brewers to the Fall Classic. The organization understood the weight of the moment and let him step away. Winter-ball franchises don’t typically pause a player’s season for personal reasons — but it’s also not every day that your dad is one win away from the Commissioner’s Trophy.
Reporter Héctor Linares G. broke the detail on October 28 from the World Series: the leave was already approved, and Pat Murphy said he isn’t ruling out a trip to Mexicali to watch his son play once the postseason wraps up.
Pat Murphy and Baseball as a Family Language
Pat Murphy arrived in Milwaukee with a résumé built in the minors and as a third-base coach, then steered the Brewers to the postseason on the back of pitching and defense that few expected to reach the World Series. That his son chose professional baseball — even if, for now, it’s in the LMP rather than a MLB organization — says everything about the household he grew up in.
The Águilas de Mexicali are one of the most storied franchises in Mexican winter ball, with multiple Caribbean Series titles on their shelf. Kai Murphy earning a spot on that roster isn’t a footnote: the LMP draws former MLB org players, developing prospects, and veterans extending their careers. Making that roster means genuinely competing.
Why This Story Is Bigger Than a Feel-Good Anecdote
Baseball has spent decades building bridges between Mexico and the big leagues, but the traffic almost always flows one way — talent moving north. The Murphy story quietly flips that dynamic. A World Series manager looking south toward Mexicali because that’s where his son is playing ball.
For Águilas fans, having Kai Murphy on the roster was already an interesting footnote. The possibility that his father — fresh off managing in the World Series — could show up at the Mexicali ballpark before the year is out turns that footnote into something genuinely worth watching.
- The LMP runs its own calendar, its own intensity, and its own heroes.
- Every once in a while, the World Series loans it a few characters for a couple of days.
- Pat Murphy said it himself: Mexicali could be his first stop after the Series ends.
If that’s not a baseball story, nothing is.
