While the Milwaukee Brewers heard rumors that Craig Counsell would leave his post as manager, they didn't expect him to join their rival Chicago Cubs. But as the Brewers look for their Counsell replacement, a well-experienced manager has become the favorite.

Current Toronto Blue Jays bench coach Don Mattingly has the highest odds (+300) to become Milwaukee's next manager, via betonline.ag. Current bench coach Pat Murphy and Brewers legend round out the top three at +500 and +600 respectfully. The top five also includes Gabe Kapler (+800) and Victor Estevez (+900).

In 2011, Mattingly became the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He served in that post until 2015, holding an overall record of 446-363. He helped lead the Dodgers to the playoffs in the final three seasons in LA, reaching the NLCS in 2013. The Dodgers won the NL West all three of those seasons.

But with the Dodgers flaming out in the playoffs each year, Los Angeles decided to move on from Mattingly and turned to Dave Roberts. Mattingly then joined the Miami Marlins as their manager from 2016-2022. Miami had a 443-587 record under Mattingly, making the playoffs in 2020. While Mattingly is the winningest manager in Marlins' history, his lack of playoff success helps explain why the team went in a different direction after 2022.

Still, Don Mattingly has plenty of experience managing a MLB club. Losing Craig Counsell the way they did, perhaps Milwaukee is looking for a strong leader to help right the course. In Mattingly, the Brewers would be looking to continue their recent success and would be turning to their manager to help lead them to their peak.