Meet the Brewers’ next pitching success story

Spring training standout Craig Yoho is on the way to becoming Milwaukee’s newest stud relief pitcher

The Brewers have a pitching prospect who, at 25 years old, has yet to make his major league debut. He spent five years in college and was injured for four of them. His fastball tops out at 93 miles per hour. He’s ranked nowhere near the top 100 MLB prospects. He has also already been reassigned to minor league camp this spring. Doesn’t sound like a major reason to be excited, right?

Now, what if I told you this player has been pretty much unhittable as a professional? What if I told you he has a changeup so filthy that it broke Statcast? Or that he made it all the way to Triple-A in under a year, recording a 0.83 earned run average and 83 strikeouts to 14 walks along the way?

Meet Craig Yoho, averaging just under two strikeouts an inning this spring.

Brewers’ fans who have been paying attention already know his name. Yoho made headlines last year for his stellar play in the minors, even winning the Brewers co-Minor League Pitcher of the Year Award and has continued to turn heads this spring training. He’s mostly a three-pitch pitcher — four seam fastball, a nasty slider/curveball, and an even nastier changeup. Devin Williams, the Brewers’ star closer for the last couple of seasons, made All-Star teams on the back of his “Airbender.” Yoho’s changeup is about as similar as it gets.

Yoho and Williams throw their changeups from essentially the same arm angle and record a similar whiff rate. Williams’ changeup is already borderline unhittable, but Yoho’s version of the pitch is slower and breaks more. Generally, the slower a changeup is, the more effective it is, since changeups attempt to disrupt a hitters’ timing. Hitters facing Yoho expect to time a 93-mphfastball, then get hit with this:

Yoho has begun to introduce a fourth pitch — a cutter that, unlike his other three pitches, barely breaks. Having a fourth pitch would help him in a couple different ways. First of all, being able to throw a greater variety of pitches helps a pitcher disrupt hitters’ timing. Even Yoho’s fastball has above-average break, so introducing a pitch that doesn’t break should theoretically keep hitters more off balance. As long as they can’t regularly time it, Yoho should be alright. A consistent cutter would also help Yoho because he walked too many batters last year, posting a 14.5% walk rate in his time in Triple-A. Having a go to pitch that doesn’t break as much might help him find the zone more consistently.

The safest thing to do is let him continue to get acclimated to the minors before bringing him up. Yoho very well might be good enough now to pitch for the Brewers, but he’s also still learning the position. Nobody masters the art of pitching in two years. He still has issues to work out — like, for example, walking too many batters. However, if he keeps pitching like he has this spring, he’ll be thrown into high leverage situations by the time September rolls around.

So why is Yoho not in the big leagues, or even on the 40-man roster? According to Brewers manager Pat Murphy, it’s because he’s pitched 14 ¹⁄₃ Triple-A innings in his life. Yoho has appeared in exactly 69 games as a pitcher between college and the pros. He was an infielder until 2023, when he transferred schools (to Indiana University) and started pitching.

Yoho was originally a shortstop prospect with the University of Houston but played one game in three years (2020-2022) due to injuries. He transferred and became a pitcher two years ago, making his collegiate debut against Miami (Ohio) in February 2023. Yoho is only this close to the big leagues as a pitcher because he’s done nothing but perform since the Brewers drafted him.

Personally, I think we could be looking at Milwaukee’s next star reliever. Yoho has done nothing but perform well since becoming a pitcher. He has the stuff required to be a top reliever and produced like a top prospect in his first professional season. Yoho is the Brewers’ No. 19 prospect but would probably be higher if he weren’t already 25 — on the older side for a prospect.

Expect to see Yoho coming out of the bullpen sometime this summer. Odds are he’ll keep pitching like he has last year (and this spring), and Milwaukee will want to see what they have in the right-hander.

If you want to see Yoho making minor leaguers look silly before he inevitably gets called up, check out a Nashville Sounds game. At the very least, remember the name.