After Making Adjustments in Nashville, Craig Yoho is Back With the Brewers for the Stretch Run

Craig Yoho’s first big-league season has not aligned with his minor-league dominance. After blazing through the Brewers’ farm system with a 1.34 ERA, 1.75 FIP, and 41.1% strikeout rate in his first 60 1/3 professional innings, the 25-year-old has pitched to an 8.22 ERA, 7.44 FIP, and 13.2% strikeout rate in just 7 2/3 MLB frames.

Yoho has bounced between the Brewers and the Triple-A Nashville Sounds throughout the year; his promotion on September 1 was his fourth of the season. Since his inaugural cup of coffee in the majors in April, his focus back in the minors has become more development-oriented.

“As you're kind of moving up the ranks, you're so focused on results,” Yoho said. “You feel like you have to pitch perfectly in order to get promotions and get from High-A to Double-A, Double-A to Triple-A. But getting up here, you see what the game’s like, you see what the big-league level is. Now I can go down, and I don't feel like I have to necessarily pitch perfectly. I can start working on things I need to work on.”

One of the things Yoho had to work on was making more competitive pitches, an issue that plagued his first few big-league stints. He has thrown a below-average 43.1% of his total offerings in the strike zone, and opposing hitters have chased just 20.2% of his out-of-zone pitches, leading to a 23.7% walk rate.

Because his pitches have so much movement, free bases will always be part of a tradeoff for Yoho, who should rack up enough strikeouts to work around them. Devin Williams and Aaron Ashby have found success in Milwaukee with similar high-walk, high-strikeout profiles. However, Yoho’s misses were too frequent, too severe, and easy for hitters to take for balls. Last month in Nashville, he made a series of changes to improve on that front, starting with moving across the pitching rubber.

Finding the best starting position has been a game of trial-and-error for Yoho. For most of his professional career, he pitched from the third-base side of the rubber to create the most uncomfortable angle for right-handed hitters. After experimenting with pitching to left-handers from the first-base side, Yoho migrated there full-time in August.

“I was so used to being on the third-base side of the rubber that all of a sudden a lefty would be up, I'd be two pitches in, and I'd be on the wrong side of the rubber,” he said. “So just trying to get more comfortable, it was like, ‘Let's just move to the first base side a little bit.’ My toe kind of starts right in the middle of the rubber now, and it's just helped my pitches stay on the plate longer. I actually probably get more visual movement to hitters, rather than kind of working against my movement.”

In addition to helping Yoho’s screwball-like changeup (which averages 18 inches of arm-side movement) stay in the strike zone longer as it fades, sliding over also gave him more plate to work with.

“It basically just kind of opens up the plate,” he said. “So instead of me trying to throw at an angle and cut the plate, it basically gives me a wider target now to hit. I felt like it's kind of opened up how I can move on the mound, too, just not having to be so perfect.”

More recently, Yoho replaced his big curveball, which averaged nearly 20 inches of horizontal break and 10 inches of induced drop, with a new slider he labels a “baby sweeper.” Since debuting this version of his breaking ball, he’s thrown it nearly twice as often (16.5%) as he threw the curveball (9.4%).

The curveball popped out of Yoho’s hand at release and separated early from his other pitches. He threw it in the strike zone only 20.1% of the time in Triple-A. The shorter breaking ball looks more like a fastball out of his hand, and he has thrown 42.9% of them in the strike zone.

“With the bigger curveball that I threw, there was a pop to it, I guess is the best way to describe it,” Yoho said. “This one tracks more [like a] heater out of hand, which is nice. And with it being a relatively new pitch, I have a pretty good feel for it already, which is awesome. So just that little smaller movement helps with that.”

If Yoho’s stuff starts playing at the big-league level, it would be a boon to a beleaguered Brewers’ bullpen that was already short Trevor Megill, DL Hall, and Grant Anderson before losing trade deadline acquisition Shelby Miller to a season-ending UCL injury.

“Just give my 100% for that day,” Yoho said of his mentality after a season of ups and downs. “I don't need to try 150%. It's just let my talent that's gotten me here just take control and go compete. Just getting that mindset back is obviously the biggest thing.”