The Pittsburgh Pirates have one of the most talented young pitching staffs in baseball, so they hired one of the game’s top young pitching coaches in Bill Murphy, a source confirmed to TribLive.

The 35-year-old Murphy has been with the Houston Astros since 2016, serving as one of their major league pitching coaches since the 2021 season. He replaces Oscar Marin, who was fired by the Pirates after six seasons.

Murphy marks the first hire for Pirates manager Don Kelly, who also has to replace assistant pitching coach Brent Strom and third base coach Mike Rabelo from his coaching staff.

Murphy comes with a World Series ring after the Astros won in 2022 with a pitching staff that led the American League in ERA (2.90) and WHIP (1.09) and threw two no-hitters that season, including the first combined no-hitter in a World Series by starter Cristian Javier and relievers Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero and Ryan Pressly.

Murphy, who is bilingual, was hired as Houston’s rookie ball pitching coach in 2016, became their minor league pitching coordinator three years later and joined the major league coaching staff as assistant pitching coach in 2021. When Strom left the Astros following the 2021 season, Murphy was elevated to pitching coach along with Josh Miller. Over the past four seasons, the Astros have the lowest ERA and second-highest strikeouts per nine innings in the majors.

Murphy inherits a Pirates pitching staff that features the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year and 2025 NL Cy Young favorite in two-time All-Star right-hander Paul Skenes, along with veterans Mitch Keller and Johan Oviedo and rookies Braxton Ashcraft, Hunter Barco, Mike Burrows and Bubba Chandler.

Jared Jones is expected to return by midseason and Carmen Mlodzinski split time between the starting rotation and bullpen.

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