After an encouraging outing, Brewers make puzzling Craig Yoho decision

In some ways, 2025 has been an encouraging year for the Milwaukee Brewers' top relief pitching prospect, Craig Yoho. The 25-year-old right-hander out of the Indiana University continued to dominate minor league hitters and made his MLB debut before the first month of the season concluded. However, while there have been plenty of positive takeaways from Yoho's several stints with the big league club, he has yet to replicate the success and consistency that he enjoys in Triple-A and at the major league level. As such, Yoho has had a difficult time remaining on the Brewers' roster for an extended period of time.

His most recent shot at the big leagues came as a result of the September roster expansion, which allowed Milwaukee to add Yoho to their big league bullpen without sending someone down. After not pitching for nearly a week, which was a puzzling decision in its own right, Yoho was asked to cover the final inning of the Brewers' blowout win against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday afternoon.

Things finally seemed to click for the Brewers’ aptly-hyped prospect, who possesses a one-of-a-kind changeup that you have to see to believe. On just 10 pitches, Yoho recorded a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts and threw seven of his 10 pitches for strikes. He kept his elite changeup down in the zone while locating his mid-90s fastball at the top.

All in all, it was exactly the outing that Yoho needed, and it left Brewers fans encouraged about what he might bring to the table down the stretch. However, prior to the Crew's next game, a Monday night tilt with the Texas Rangers in Arlington, the team made the somewhat shocking decision to send Yoho back to the minor leagues to make room for the return of Grant Anderson.

Brewers option Craig Yoho to Triple-A after his best outing of the season

Having Grant Anderson back in the big league bullpen is a huge boost for a relief corps that has been decimated by injuries in recent weeks, so the puzzling nature of this move is not the reinstatement of Anderson, but rather the decision to send Yoho down to the minors over a few other possible candidates should have Brewers fans slightly perplexed.

It's certainly true that the Brewers need innings right now, so electing to keep a reliever who can cover multiple innings over someone like Yoho, who traditionally covers just one, holds some merit. However, Milwaukee currently has three pitchers who can fill such a role in their bullpen in Tobias Myers, Erick Fedde, and Carlos Rodriguez. While Fedde can't be optioned to the minor leagues, Myers and Rodriguez can, and the latter hasn't pitched at any level since August 29. Keeping Fedde and Myers, both of whom have demonstrated versatility in the bullpen and have pitched well as of late, is justifiable, but opting to send Yoho down instead of Rodriguez makes less sense.

There's very little chance that either Rodriguez or Yoho makes the postseason roster, but between the two Yoho has a much better chance. With a higher ceiling and a better profile for a postseason series, Yoho had a chance to impact the Crew down the stretch if he caught fire over the final month of the season. A great starting point for such a run was Yoho's outing against the Pirates yesterday afternoon. However, now Yoho will not have the opportunity to build off that performance at the big league level, and his chance of turning into the shut-down reliever that the Brewers know he can be for the final stretch of the season has taken a significant hit.

It's not a major move, and keeping Rodriguez on the roster for now does allow Pat Murphy to theoretically give his bullpen a day off if the Brewers are involved in either side of a blowout, but punishing Yoho for what was his best outing of the season, especially after not throwing him for nearly a week, is certainly puzzling.

That said, Milwaukee's pitching staff will continue to shuffle over the final month of the season, and it's very possible that Yoho will be back with the big league club shortly. What matters most for the Crew is that they have their best group of relievers performing at their best when the postseason comes around, and every decision that they make from this point forward should reflect that priority.