Milwaukee Brewers Minor League Starting Pitchers of the Month - May 2025

One of last month’s honorable mentions—John Holobetz—was traded to the Boston Red Sox organization. Logan Henderson, also an honorable mention for March/April, pitched mostly with Milwaukee in May and acquitted himself quite nicely.

Here is the link to the March/April Minor League Starting Pitchers of the month.

Without further fanfare, here are the eight pitchers feted as the May Minor League Starting Pitchers of the Month by Brewer Fanatic.

Honorable Mentions

Brandon Woodruff, Nashville/Wisconsin – 4 G, 4 GS, 18.1 IP, 1-0, 1.47 ERA, 1.091 WHIP, 17 H, 3 BB, 17 K.

Tyler Renz, ACL Brewers – 4 G, 3 GS, 19.9 IP, 1-1, 2.37 ERA, 1.211 WHIP, 20 H, 3 BB, 17 K.

Melvin Hernandez, Carolina Mudcats – 5 G, 3 GS, 26.1 IP, 1-3, 3.76 ERA, 1.372 WHIP, 32 H, 4 BB, 20 K.

TOP FIVE STARTING PITCHERS FOR MAY

#5 – Tanner Gillis, Carolina Mudcats/Wisconsin Timber Rattlers - 5 G, 3 GS, 28.0 IP, 1-1, 1.93 ERA, 1.036 WHIP, 22 H, 7 BB, 16 K
Gillis was named to the first team All-Horizon League at Northern Kentucky in 2024. Prior to that, Gillis pitched at Cedarville (OH) University, an NCAA Division II school, for four years. The Brewers signed Gillis as a non-drafted free agent in September 2024.

The 6-foot-2, 210-pound right-hander began his pro career in 2025 at Carolina and pitched in seven relief appearances before being promoted to the T-Rats in mid-May. He won one game and saved another for the Mudcats with an ERA of 1.32.

Gillis pitched well in his Midwest League debut against Beloit, allowing just three hits, one run, and two walks while striking out three in a six-inning no-decision. In his second start at South Bend, Gillis went six innings, allowed seven hits and three runs in a 6-2 loss to the Cubs. Gillis earned his first MWL win at home against Peoria on May 30, going seven strong innings, allowing four hits and one unearned run.

He had a decent K rate in Carolina, striking out 24.6% of batters faced while working out of the pen. In a smaller sample for the T-Rats—and a different role—Gillis has only struck out batters at an 11% clip in his three starts.

Check out the reaction time on a rocket back through the box by Gillis in this video:

#4 – Bishop Letson, Wisconsin Timber Rattlers - 2 G, 2 GS, 10.2 IP, 1-0, 0.84 ERA, 0.938 WHIP, 6 H, 4 BB, 13 K
Letson, who finished third in April’s MiLB Starting Pitcher Of The Month ranking, has been slowed by a sore shoulder in May. He made two starts early in the month but was sidelined after May 9. 

The lanky (6-foot-4, 170-pound) righty was the 11th-round pick of the Brewers in 2023. His best pitch is a slider, which has a CV of 50 and an FV of 60. Overall, this season, Letson has struck out batters at a 30% rate, while walking only 7% of the batters he faces.

Letson set a career-high with nine strikeouts on May 2 against West Michigan. In five innings, Letson allowed three hits and one walk in a 6-1 win. Six days later, in Peoria, he left after 5.2 innings with the score tied 2-2. The T-Rats scored a run the next inning to take a 3-2 win. Letson allowed three hits, two runs (one earned), and three walks. He struck out four batters in the game.  

#3 – Tate Kuehner, Biloxi Shuckers – 5 G, 5 GS, 26.0 IP, 3-0, 2.08 ERA, 1.154 WHIP, 16 H, 14 BB, 34 K
The sole lefty on this month’s squad, the 6-foot-1, 195-pound Illinois product, was a seventh-round pick in 2023. Used mostly as a reliever in his four years at the University of Louisville, Kuehner has started 30 of 35 games in his professional career. After a nice season in 2024 with the Timber Rattlers, Kuehner moved up to Double-A Biloxi at the end of the year. Kuehner needs to work on his control, as he has walked batters at nearly a 16% clip with the Shuckers.

His five starts in May have been a mixed bag but he pitched well enough to earn three wins as the Shuckers went 5-0 in his starts. His only really bad game came on May 3 against Columbus, when he allowed two hits, four runs, and five walks while whiffing nine Clingstones. Eight days later against Pensacola, Kuehner gave up five hits, one unearned run, and one walk in a 5-1 win over the Blue Wahoos. On May 17, he held the Montgomery Biscuits hitless over 5 2/3 innings while walking three. He notched his third win of the month over Knoxville on May 17, and finished off the month with 5 2/3 solid innings (five hits, one run, one walk, eight K’s) over the Rocket City Trash Pandas.

In Kuehner’s 10 starts, Biloxi has scored only 12 runs yet won six of those games.

#2 – Jacob Misiorowski, Nashville Sounds – 6 G, 6 GS, 28.2 IP, 2-2, 2.83 ERA, 1.290 WHIP, 22 H, 15 BB, 35 K
What more can be said about Miz? Here’s something you may not know. Aaron Ashby, Andy Ashby, and Joe Boever all attended the same college as Miz: Crowder College in Neosho, Missouri. So did Travis Phelps and former Brewer farmhand Lance Burkhart.

See, you learn something new every day.

Misiorowski started off May well, earning wins over Gwinnett and Norfolk, allowing a combined seven hits, one run, and five walks while striking out 16 in 12 2/3 innings. He took a no-decision against Memphis on May 15, allowing four hits, one run, and one walk in seven innings.

Then came two games where he struggled a bit against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Indianapolis, giving up a combined eight hits, three runs, and three walks in seven innings total. He was tagged with his first loss of the year after leaving the game with a pitch count of 87 in four innings.

In his final game of the month on May 31, Misiorowski got beat up, giving up three hits, five runs, and six free passes in an 8-4 loss to Indianapolis. The tall, talented righty took his lumps the last three times out, so unfortunate as it may be, Miz might be injured or simply tuckered out. 

Miz really has nothing left to prove at Triple A, so at some point this year he will probably get the call to the bigs.

#1 – Tyson Hardin, Wisconsin Timber Rattlers - 5 G, 5 GS, 30.0 IP, 2-1, 1.50 ERA, 0.933 WHIP, 26 H, 2 BB, 33 K
A 12th round pick in the 2024 draft, the 6-foot-2, 185-pound righthander was the fifth-best starter in the Brewers organization last month as ranked by Brewer Fanatic's MILB Starting Pitcher piece but climbed to the top in May.  

Hardin was basically a reliever in college, making only two starts in 40 appearances. That has all changed this year, as Hardin made nine starts with a good deal of success. His BB rate this year is 3.2%, including 28 consecutive innings without a free pass in May. Hardin has struck out 28.6% of batters faced in those nine starts. The K-BB rate of 25.4% is very impressive.

Other than one bad outing, Hardin has been very good in three out of his four starts this month. He had a no-decision in a tough luck 1-0 loss to West Michigan in which he pitched four-hit, scoreless ball over seven innings. Six days later at Peoria, he allowed nine hits and four runs in his only loss of the season. Hardin earned his third win of the year on a rare complete-game shutout over Beloit on May 16, allowing only two hits while striking out six. In South Bend on May 22, Hardin gave up six hits and one run in six innings, setting down eight batters on strikes. His final start on May 29 against Peoria was a ho-hum no-decision in which he went only four innings while allowing five hits, one run, and his only two walks since April 26.

How did we do this month? Feel free to put us on blast or give us mad props in the comments. Either way, THANK YOU for reading Brewer Fanatic!

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