This week, Brewers flamethrower and National League Cy Young favorite Jacob Misiorowski will conclude one of the most overpowering, unhittable seasons ever recorded by a starting pitcher. No qualified starter in modern baseball history has ever surrendered a lower opponent’s batting average than what Misiorowski is allowing now (.159). Take away the shortened 2020 season, and only one starter — Gerrit Cole in 2019 — has ever generated a higher strikeout rate over the course of a full season than Misiorowski’s 38.2% mark this year. So, it might seem strange that MLB’s velocity king — whose triple-digit heat has reached as high as 105.5 mph, the fastest ever recorded by a starting pitcher — grew up idolizing a pitcher whose average career four-seam velocity clocked in around 90 mph. Adam Wainwright, who can count on one hand how many big leaguers have ever told him he was one of their favorite players, was taken aback when I told him that he was Misiorowski’s childhood idol. “He might’ve gotten the first 92, 93 mph from me,” Wainwright quipped. “The other 12 are on him.” As of a month ago, Misiorowski had never met or talked to Wainwright. But as a kid in the Kansas City area with little winning baseball to watch in the early 2000s, Misiorowski was drawn to the St. Louis right-hander — not because Wainwright overwhelmed his competition with sheer force, the way Misiorowski can do, but because he was unflappable. “The biggest thing was his demeanor on the mound,” Misiorowski told me last month. “Something bad happens, move onto the next pitch. There’s no care, no emotion with it. I took that into just pitching in general. Whenever I give up a home run or something like that, ‘OK, so be it, they got to me, next pitch.’” That, admittedly, was not always so easy for Misiorowski. “They used to tear me up, and I’d get really upset on the mound,” Misiorowski said. “Then I started watching other guys. I kind of thought about Wainwright and his demeanor and just everyone in the past and kind of was like, ‘That’s what I need to do. I need to forget about it.’” Along with harnessing his control, adding to his powerful arsenal and maturing into his 6-foot-7-inch frame, Misiorowski’s mental growth on the mound is part of the transformation that has helped the raw prospect with elite tools develop into MLB’s most dominant starter over the course of just one year. The best pitcher on the best team in baseball leads MLB in ERA, WHIP, strikeouts, strikeout rate and opponents’ batting average, among a litany of categories. “Emotionally, he’s in a way better place,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy told me. “I always say, your first year you’re on rollerskates. You don’t feel the concrete on the ground. It’s a little slippery. I feel like he’s taken off the rollerskates. He’s not all the way there. He’s not all the way matured. He’s going to face more adversity. But he’s handled what adversity has come his way pretty darn well.” ‘Unlike Anything You Ever See’ Despite his junior college background, Misiorowski’s stuff was never a question. The velocity that “Miz” generated from his long levers was enough to convince the Brewers to spend a second-round pick in 2022 on the gangly right-hander from Crowder College, who would otherwise have been transferring to LSU for his junior season. In his first full pro season in Milwaukee’s system in 2023, Misiorowski jumped from Low-A to High-A to Double-A, combining to strike out 110 batters in 71.1 innings. Days before Misiorowski’s first Double-A start against the Montgomery Biscuits, his pitching coach, Will Schierholz, saw him throw in person for the first time. The first pitch of the bullpen session clocked in at 98 mph. Then Misiorowski spun a slider at 92. “We had some pretty good arms, some major league arms, on that staff, and you’re awestruck when you watch Miz throw up close for the first time,” Schierholz, who’s now a Brewers assistant pitching coordinator, told me. “It’s unlike anything you ever see.” In Misiorowski’s last three starts that season, he struck out 29 batters in just 14.2 innings. He’d spike curveballs into the dirt, and opponents would still chase. He’d fire fastballs three feet above the zone, and hitters would still helplessly offer. Many times, they were simply guessing as soon as the ball left his hand. “Every time he touched the mound, he knew hitters did not have a chance,” Schierholz said. “If he made his pitch, they didn’t have a chance.” The problem, however, was that Misiorowski often didn’t know where the ball was going. In five starts at Double-A that season, Misiorowski walked 16 batters and hit 11. “He was always ultra, ultra competitive, it just wasn’t always a consistent mindset on the mound when things maybe didn’t go his way,” Schierholz recalled. “So to see kind of where that’s gone over the last couple years here, to see him have that consistent mindset, calm and collected at all times, that’s come a long way since he came up to Biloxi in 2023.” As the strikeouts continued to rack up a year later, so did the free passes. Over 79.2 innings at Double-A in 2024, Misiorowski struck out 105 batters, walked 50 and plunked 10. When he was promoted to Triple-A that August, the Brewers put him in the bullpen, in part to limit his innings. He clearly had a big-league arm, but his lack of control threatened to make him a reliever long-term. “I think that was always in the back of everybody’s head, right?” Schierholz said. “Especially for a guy with that prolific stuff. Just in general, you don’t see starters have the stuff that he has. But I think the thing that always kept all of us optimistic is the arsenal’s deep. He didn’t have a big injury history, and he was still so young that we had time to make sure this played out in a positive way.” Misiorowski returned to starting at the beginning of the 2025 season at Triple-A. The control issues lingered, which was part of the reason he was MLB’s No. 68 overall prospect that year and not a top-10 talent. Over a five-start stretch, he struck out 38 batters in 30.2 innings with a 0.79 ERA. But then came four starts in which he combined for 12 walks over 14 innings. Still, despite Misiorowski’s volatility, depth issues in the Brewers’ big-league rotation spurred action. They called up the 23-year-old, who did not look overwhelmed by the promotion. After just five MLB starts, the last of which was a six-inning, 12-strikeout gem against Clayton Kershaw and the reigning champion Dodgers, Misiorowski was named an All-Star. Some scoffed at MLB’s decision, but he looked deserving of the honor when he threw a scoreless eighth inning in an eventual National League win. “He’s taken the game straight out of the firehose,” Brewers pitching coach Chris Hook told me. “It was a lot. I thought he did an incredible job for as much as was thrown at him.” But adversity beckoned, as it does so often for rookies. An Early Turning Point Opponents went from hitting .138 against Misiorowski in the first half to .257 in the second half. Lefties feasted on his slider, his strikeout rate declined, his control and command remained spotty, and the Brewers wanted to be cautious of his workload, considering he had never thrown even 100 innings in a professional season. Hook sensed Misiorowski was wearing down, both physically and mentally. “The intensity here is higher, and then you’re pitching more often,” Hook explained. “At the end of September, he felt it. It was a lot of strain.” After Misiorowski registered a 5.45 ERA in nine starts out of the break, he was moved to the bullpen at the end of the season. He didn’t like the way he was handling himself or how he handled getting hit around. So, he thought back to Wainwright. About the mindset. About letting go. Then, he rose to the occasion with the lights at their brightest. In a bulk relief role, Misiorowski recorded a 1.50 ERA over 12 playoff innings. His postseason ended with five innings of one-run ball at Dodger Stadium, where he struck out nine batters in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. It wasn’t enough to lift his Brewers over the eventual back-to-back champs, but he looked at that moment as a turning point in his career. “I went through the struggles at the end of the year, and really was trying to battle through it,” Misiorowski said. “Then, postseason rolled around, had the success, and I kind of brought it into this year, still on that momentum.” He demonstrated his ability to control his emotions on baseball’s biggest stage. Then he focused on everything else within his control — his body, his arsenal, the strike zone — to ascend into a starting pitching marvel. “When you fail, and you’ve been one of the best pitchers on the planet and quickly one of the youngest All-Stars of all time, I’m sure that can take a toll on anybody,” Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold told me. “But he’s a mature kid. He’s grown up to be a man right in front of us, and he’s a guy that you want at the front of any rotation. He’s the best pitcher in the game, in my opinion.” Controlling His Body Over the offseason, Misiorowski went to work on building his slender frame, knowing he needed more force and stamina to hold up over the long haul of a season after last year’s dropoff. “It was definitely more lower-body focused,” he told me. “I wanted to get my legs as strong as possible. That’s where most of my power comes from.” He ended last year around 185 pounds. Crossing the 200-pound mark this winter was a milestone moment. He didn’t stop. He said he came into camp at around 215-220 pounds and is now around 210-215, a 30-pound increase from last year. He didn’t change his diet entirely, but he acknowledged there were fewer 3 a.m. visits to Taco Bell with his friends. “Eating well, eating better,” Misiorowski explained, “not crappy, like I was. Really working on finally maturing into my body.” Where does he see the weight helping most now? “The biggest is definitely stamina,” he said. “The effort isn’t max effort every time. You can still get to the 100s, and it’s an easier effort compared to last year when I was hitting 100 and it was full go.” Of all the improvements Misiorowski has made, it’s the velocity jump that stands out most to Schierholz, his old minor-league pitching coach. What Misiorowski is doing is unmatched and unprecedented. Prior to this season, the fastest average four-seamer for a qualified MLB starter over the course of a full season belonged to Noah Syndergaard at 98.9 mph in 2016. Misiorowski is averaging 100.6 mph this year, up more than a tick from a season ago. There have been 365 occasions of a starting pitcher crossing the 102-mph mark this season. The Pirates’ Bubba Chandler did it twice. So did Dodgers reliever Edgardo Henriquez, when he was used as an opener. The other 361 times are courtesy of Misiorowski, who has also eclipsed 103 mph 143 times, 104 mph 22 times and 105 mph once. A year ago, he threw just 22 pitches over 102 mph, including the postseason. “I think we try to lay out plans for the guys, but all the credit goes to him, the work that he put in,” Arnold said. “You gotta want to be great, and I think Miz is exactly that kind of kid. He knew what he needed to do to get better, and he did it himself.” And now, Misiorowski has a better idea of where his four-seamer is going — even if he’s not entirely sure why. Controlling The Zone Misiorowski’s fastball gets the highlights and acclaim, but arguably the most dramatic and important change Misiorowski made this year has nothing to do with his power. He has cut his walk rate down from 11% last year to 6.6% this year, the largest year-to-year drop among all qualified MLB starters. But he can’t explain how. “I honestly have no clue,” Misiorowski told me. “I wish I could tell you and help everyone out. I honestly have zero idea on how I’m doing it. It’s one of those things I’m looking at like, ‘That number ain’t right.’” Many of his teammates assumed he must be pounding the strike zone a lot more, but he’s actually in the zone less this year than he was last season. That might seem confusing, but his pitching coach has an explanation. “You can’t wait him out,” Hook said. “He’s throwing 105 [mph], and it’s like, ‘I gotta go if he’s throwing a strike.’” “It’s going to be hard to put the ball in play,” Arnold added, “so teams are probably wanting to be aggressive and see if they can hop on something.” It helps that Misiorowski is throwing a first-pitch strike 8% more this year than last year — also the largest year-to-year jump from any qualified starter this season. And it plays into Brewers closer Trevor Megill’s theory. “You make one pitch a strike on the corner, then the one off the corner by three inches looks like it’s closer than it is,” Megill told me. Misiorowski’s chase rate (35.2%) is up nearly 7% from last season. Meanwhile, his whiff rate (37.2%) is the highest among all qualified starters and is also up significantly from a year ago (29.7%) — again, that’s the biggest year-to-year jump for a starting pitcher in MLB. Misiorowski’s enhanced ability to harness his stuff has led to shorter innings, longer outings and even a game between him and his pitching coach. One time earlier this year, Misiorowski was coming off a 12-pitch frame when Hook issued a test. “I said, ‘Hey, can you make it a 10 next?’ He made it a 10,’” Hook recalled. “I said, ‘Can you make it a nine?’ We just like having those challenges inside the game.” Controlling His Arsenal Earlier this year, Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn watched Misiorowski’s fastball up close and followed up with a question. Why the hell are you throwing anything else? “It was funny,” Misiorowski recalled. “But on the flipside, I’m like, ‘I can’t just do that.’” In some ways, though, Misiorowski has heeded Wynn’s advice. His four-seam usage is up this year, and no starter in baseball throws their heater more. With a fastball that averages over 100 mph and is responsible for 163 of his MLB-leading 247 strikeouts, you can understand why. At the same time, Misiorowski is still adding to his repertoire. “It seems to me like he went home and said, ‘You know what, the postseason was fun, I want to get back there again, how can I be a great pitcher and not just a thrower?’” Wainwright said. “That is the nature of how great players mature. That’s the nature of how great players grow in the game. They don’t get comfortable in who they are. They don’t get stuck.” Last year, lefties hit .385 and righties hit .267 against Misiorowski’s slider, which averaged 5 mph slower than his four-seamer. The Brewers wanted to find another offering that would create more of a separation in velocity. So, Misiorowski added a slower slider with more depth to his arsenal this year, which righties are hitting .188 against. Meanwhile, he turned last year’s slider into his cutter, which lefties are hitting .089 against this season. “I’ve gotten a lot of strange looks, strange emotions, from it, just in the fact that the cutter’s kind of closer to the heater,” Misiorowski said. “You get some swings where some guys see the spin, and then they’re like, ‘Oh, shoot, it’s on me.’” In addition to his curveball and changeup, the new additions to his arsenal give opponents more to think about this season beyond his velocity. “He kind of does things on the fly a little bit,” Hook said. “I’m not saying he’s a lab kid, per se. He’s naturally gifted, and he’s like, ‘I’m going to do this,’ ‘I can do that,’ and he makes the adjustment.” Along with a lower walk rate, Misiorowski’s strikeout rate is up 6.2% from last season and is the highest in MLB. He won’t win the triple crown — Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez has three more wins than him — but he leads the sport in both ERA and strikeouts, despite ranking 23rd in innings pitched. His triple-digit heat combined with better control and command certainly help, but so does the tweak in his repertoire. He’s also gaining a better feel for game-planning and why his catchers are calling for certain pitches in certain situations. “At the start of the year, we were definitely more, ‘Whatever you think, let’s just roll with it. You’re obviously seeing something that’s working,’” Misiorowski told me. “And it’s gotten to the point where it’s like, ‘OK, I’m kinda seeing it too. I understand where you’re going with this.” ‘This Guy Is Built For This’ More often than not, though, he relies on his catchers to help him navigate a game, as William Contreras did during his 15-strikeout, one-hit, complete-game shutout on 95 pitches against the Phillies in June. Contreras also helped Misiorowski work around trouble two months later, when the pitcher made his return to the mound at Dodger Stadium for the first time since the NLCS. A year ago, Misiorowski was stupefied watching Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman sign his jersey at the All-Star Game. In some ways, he’s still that wide-eyed kid, pinching himself about his new reality. “I don’t think that will ever get to a point where it’s just normal,” Misiorowski told me. Only now, he’s starting to gain the poise of the idols he grew up watching. The day before his start on Aug. 15, Misiorowski’s newfound confidence was on full display when he gave away his attack plan against Ohtani. “He knows what I’m going to do: I’m going to throw a heater,” Misiorowski vowed. “Good luck. Here it is.” Sure enough, he followed up on those words by attacking Ohtani with six straight fastballs in his first at-bat, all over 102 mph, to induce a popout. But it’s what Misiorowski did in his final at-bat against Ohtani that exemplified why he is so much more than the novice flamethrower he was a year ago. After three straight singles off Misiorowski in the fifth inning, Ohtani stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and one out. This time, at Contreras’ behest, Misiorowski switched it up. He got a swinging strike on a curveball, a called strike on a four-seamer, then sent Ohtani back to the dugout swinging through a slider. “He’s thinking more like a pitcher,” Contreras told me, “and not just wanting to throw hard.” One batter later, Misiorowski used the slider again to fool Freddie Freeman on a strikeout and escape the threat. He pumped his fist and let out a scream before returning to the dugout. As he attempts to follow Wainwright’s lead with his composure on the mound, he’s not losing himself in the process. “That part of his game hasn’t changed, which I’m happy to see,” Schierholz said. “That’s part of what makes him special, is the competitiveness and pitching with emotion, as long as he continues to rein it in and keep it in control.” The Brewers are counting on that as they rumble toward the best record in baseball for a second straight season, this time hoping their Cy Young favorite can help them author a new ending to their franchise’s winningest chapter. “Obviously, it’s a different animal when you get into October,” Misiorowski said. “But it’s going to be exciting, and I think we have a team that can make a run at it.” “This guy,” Hook added, “is built for this.”Latest Sports News from FOX Sports
