Breaking down when Brewers fans will see Jacob Misiorowski and Craig Yoho in MLB

As the Milwaukee Brewers approached the end of last season, cracks began to emerge in what had been a very solid bullpen for most of the season. Bryan Hudson, who could have justifiably been named to the All-Star team, seemed to run out of gas. It felt like Elvis Peguero gave up hard contact every time. Joel Payamps had an up-and-down season. It felt like reinforcements were needed, and many fans started wondering: would we see Jacob Misiorowski, the organization's top pitching prospect, or Craig Yoho, who tore through the minor leagues last season?

Neither of those players made it to the majors last year, as the Brewers opted for experience and roster flexibility instead. But 2025 is a new season, and on Thursday night, both players showed us a glimpse of what we might expect to see at some point in the near future.

So, when will the Brewers give Jacob Misiorowski and Craig Yoho a shot at the big leagues?

First, Misiorowski. Scouts marvel at his raw stuff, which has gotten him a place as high as the number 32 spot league-wide in major prospect rankings (in that case, Baseball America's 2024 rankings). Miz's fastball can reach 100 mph, and there are those who think that it's the best fastball in the minor leagues, given Miz's big frame (he is 6'7) that allows him to get extra extension on the pitch.

But Misiorowski complements that fastball with an elite curveball and a very good slider, too, and when he's at his best it's a wonder that anyone can get any hits off of him. In 97 innings in the minors last season, Miz allowed only 5.3 hits per nine innings (for reference, Ronel Blanco led qualifying MLB pitchers with 6.1 H/9) and struck out 11.7 batters per nine (again, for reference, the qualifying leader was National League Cy Young winner Chris Sale at 11.3 per nine). He is an incredibly difficult pitcher to hit.

But there's a drawback here: Misiorowski belongs to the Nolan Ryan-Randy Johnson-Sudden Sam McDowell lineage of big velocity, big strikeouts, and big walks. He walked 5.5 batters per nine innings in the minors last year, which is...not good, especially for a starter. That is partially why many scouts think that Miz will ultimately end up in the bullpen, though Milwaukee remains committed to using him as a starting pitcher, at least for now. Thinking he's a bullpen piece is not a slight, though: Keith Law, for example, thinks he could be one of the best relievers in baseball.

The command is the big question for Misiorowski. It's not unheard of that a player who fits Misiorowski's profile could improve in this aspect: Johnson, who I mentioned above, averaged 5.7 walks per nine innings across his first five major-league seasons, but he made a sudden improvement in his sixth season in 1993 and by the team he reached his mid-30s he had some of the best command in baseball. Johnson, of course, is also one of the ten best starting pitchers of all time, and I'm not trying to make that comparison, I'm just saying, it can happen.

The Brewers also won't have to make a decision on the starter vs. reliever question immediately. The club has a track record of using big-time starting pitching prospects in a relief role to start out; they did so with Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, and Freddy Peralta, and converted Josh Hader to a relief role only upon his arrival in the big leagues (he started every minor league game he pitched in Brewers' system prior to his 2017 debut). It seems likely that Miz will relieve before he starts in the majors, even if the team still wants to try him as a starter eventually.

On the flip side, Yoho is a reliever. In his great piece at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Curt Hogg details how Yoho, who played two ways in college and dealt with a series of arm injuries, became a pitcher exclusively. Because of that injury history, it does not sound like starting is in Yoho's future. He is a pitcher with a very different profile from Misiorowski: his fastball isn't slow, but he usually sat about 93-94 in 2024 (though he has touched 95 in spring training). Instead, Yoho relies on an insane changeup, which gets compared to the Devin Williams airbender, combined with two big breaking pitches and his ever-improving fastball.

This combination was unhittable in 2024, no matter where Yoho played. The 24-year-old made 16 appearances at high-A Wisconsin and had a 0.44 ERA in 20 1/3 innings. He moved up to double-A Biloxi and had a 1.17 ERA in 23 innings. He then finished the season at triple-A Nashville, where he had a 1.26 ERA in 14.1 innings. In total, Yoho allowed just six earned runs across 57 2/3 innings in 2024, but it was the strikeout numbers that really popped: he struck out 101 batters in those 57 innings, or 15.8 per nine innings, a number that rivals the best seasons in Hader's career.

On Thursday evening, both pitchers showed what could be in the Brewer bullpen in the near future. Misiorowski started the game and went nine-up, nine-down with three strikeouts. Yoho entered in the seventh inning and pitched two innings and allowed no hits and no walks while striking out four. Yoho has allowed one hit, one walk, and no runs in four outings (five innings) this spring.

Still, it's unlikely that either opens the season on the roster. Another injury to a bullpen that has already lost Aaron Ashby and DL Hall could change things, but neither player is yet on the 40-man roster, which means someone would need to be designated for assignment or added to the 60-day injured list to make room. Certainly that could happen, but the Brewer front office values flexibility and I don't see them making that move early in the season if they don't feel like they have to.

It seems like a given, though, that these guys will be in the major leagues sooner than later, Yoho especially. Provided he gets off to a good start in Nashville this season, he doesn't have anything left to prove in the minors. Miz has work to do on his command, but at a certain point the Brewers will just need to see what they've got. Whenever they do arrive in Milwaukee, it will be exciting to watch, as both pitchers have the kind of stuff that could one day make them among the best relievers in the league.

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