Brewers news: All-Star voting update, Craig Yoho optioned, starting pitchers vs. Cubs

The Milwaukee Brewers enter play on June 26 with the second-best record in all of baseball, trailing only the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have the same number of losses and three more wins. The Brew Crew is set to begin a weekend series against the Chicago Cubs tonight, their first home series against their arch-rivals in 2026. When the three-game set wraps on Sunday afternoon the Brewers will have officially completed the first half of the 2026 season. Time flies when you're winning baseball games.

As the Brewers continue to rack up the wins, adding three more to their total with a sweep of the Cincinnati Reds earlier this week, their roster is also getting healthier, suggesting an even more productive second half is on the horizon. Brandon Woodruff returned to action on Monday night and promptly threw six scoreless innings while allowing just one hit and striking out 10 opponents. Meanwhile, Logan Henderson and Coleman Crow are both nearing their returns from the injured list.

With three months of the 2026 season in the rearview mirror, the Brewers, Pat Murphy, and Matt Arnold are once again proving that their formula works. Already with a seven-game cushion over the Cubs and the rest of the NL Central, the Brewers are hoping to build upon that division lead this weekend. However, before Jacob Misiorowski and the Crew kick off their series with the North Siders, let's take a look at three storylines that emerged during the Brewers' off-day on Thursday.

2026 All-Star Game voting update reveals downside of fan voting phase

Phase 1 of the fan voting portion of the MLB All-Star selection process concluded yesterday morning, and the results were disappointing to say the least. As a reminder, MLB uses fan voting to determine the starters of the All-Star Game, but the process is broken up into two phases. The first phase is used to determine two finalists (six for outfielders) at each position, and the second phase involves fans voting on which of those finalists they want starting the All-Star Game, with vote totals from Phase 1 not carrying over.

The finalists at each position were revealed last night, and exactly zero Brewers were among the top vote getters at their respective positions. Instead, the results reveal a concerning pattern that should have MLB reconsidering the fan voting portion of the All-Star selection process.

Of the 16 finalists for the NL's starting position players in the 2026 All-Star Game, 14 come from either the Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, or Atlanta Braves. It just so happens that those teams exist in three of the six largest markets in the National League. The New York Mets and Washington Nationals, each of whom have one deserving representative among the NL's finalists, are also among the top six largest markets in the NL. In fact, the only team that is among the six largest markets in the NL and doesn't have a player represented among the finalists for the NL's starting lineup is the Chicago Cubs.

This isn't to say that some of the players listed above aren't deserving of a spot in the Midsummer Classic; most of them are. However, players like Bryson Stott, Alec Bohm, Mookie Betts, and Teoscar Hernández are only represented because they play for big-market teams who inevitably have more fans to hand them a spot among the finalists.

For Brewers fans, the most frustrating one is certainly Stott, who narrowly beat out Brice Turang to be named a finalist for the NL's starting second base job. Turang has outplayed Stott in almost every way this year, but the Phillies' infielder is the one with a chance to be an All-Star starter.

However, as a reminder, Turang, and any other deserving Brewers position player, can still be awarded a spot in the Midsummer Classic via the players ballot and the Commissioner's Office's selections.

Brewers option Craig Yoho to Triple-A after poor outing against Cincinnati Reds

Brewers fans want so badly for Craig Yoho to be an effective big-league reliever. The Brewers' No. 26-ranked prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, has flown through the organization's farm system by dominating minor league competition with his unicorn changeup. The screwball-esque changeup is incredibly fun to watch and gives Brewers fans confidence that once Yoho hones the rest of his arsenal, he can be a dominant arm in the big leagues just as he's been in the minors.

However, Yoho, who made his debut in 2025 but maintains his rookie status in 2026, has yet to deliver the breakout that Brewers fans are so desperately hoping for. Command issues plagued the right-hander a season ago, and while he's limited the walks at the minor league level in 2026, one proved to be costly in his outing during the Brewers' series finale in Cincinnati on Wednesday night.

With a four-run lead in the eighth inning on Wednesday, Yoho allowed a single to the first batter he faced in the frame before walking his second opponent, Elly De La Cruz, after a nine-pitch battle. The walk, which was certainly an impressive at-bat from De La Cruz, moved the leadoff hitter, Edwin Arroyo, to second base. Two groundouts later, Arroyo came in to score, and De La Cruz was up to third base. Then, Yoho left a fastball right down the middle, and Spencer Steer crushed it 400 feet to center field to bring the Reds within one run.

It was a frustrating outing from Yoho, and manager Pat Murphy said as much after the game. On Thursday afternoon, the Brewers optioned Yoho back down to Triple-A, in a move that clears room for the expected return of southpaw Jared Koenig, though the corresponding move has yet to be confirmed. Yoho, whose key to success is better fastball command, is so close to not just being a productive big-league reliever but a truly dominant one.

Brewers line up best trio of starting pitchers for weekend series with Cubs

The Cubs are coming to Milwaukee for the first time since their loss in Game 5 of the 2025 NLDS, and the Brewers' welcome party couldn't be less inviting. Milwaukee has lined up their best three starting pitchers, Jacob Misiorowski, Kyle Harrison, and Brandon Woodruff (in that order), to pitch against their NL Central rivals this weekend.

However, that schedule didn't just happen by coincidence. The Brewers switched around Misiorowski's spot in the rotation last week, opting to throw him in their series opener against the Braves, rather than keep him on schedule and have him throw last Wednesday's matchup against the Cleveland Guardians. There were certainly several motivations for the change, including the fact that Miz was coming off a nine-inning outing against the Phillies, and moving him to Friday night gave him an extra two days of rest both last week and this week, but the positive side effect is that the Brewers get to throw their ace against the Cubs in tonight's series opener.

Additionally, the Brewers were strategic in when Woodruff returned to the rotation. Woody could have returned to the starting staff at any point during the Reds series earlier this week, and the rest of Milwaukee's rotation wouldn't have been altered too severely. However, the Brewers elected to throw their veteran right-hander in game one of the Reds series, knowing it would result in Woodruff also throwing Sunday's series finale against the Cubs.

The Cubs, who have a depleted starting rotation, will counter with former Brewer Colin Rea tonight, and TBA on both Saturday and Sunday. It's likely that southpaw David Peterson, whom the Cubs acquired from the Mets on Wednesday night, makes one of the two weekend starts for Craig Counsell's club.

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