- Full name Craig Yoho
- Born 10/23/1999 in Fishers, IN
- Profile Ht.: 6'3" / Wt.: 205 / Bats: R / Throws: R
- School Houston
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Drafted in the 8th round (242nd overall) by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2023 (signed for $10,000).
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Yoho exploded onto the scene this spring and emerged as one of the best relievers in the Big 10. In his 37 innings he had a 3.41 ERA with 63 strikeouts to 19 walks. Yoho’s fastball has been clocked upwards of 95 mph, but his bread and butter are his hellacious secondary offerings. Yoho’s high-70s changeup has a ton of late fade and tumble, is an effective pitch against both right and lefthanded hitters, and had an impressive 61% miss rate. His sweeping slider had a 56% miss rate, while his curveball has big time depth and a 62% miss rate. At 23 years old, Yoho is nearly a finished product when it comes to projection, but his arsenal gives him a chance to be an effective reliever at the next level.
Top Rankings
Organization Prospect Rankings
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BA Grade/Risk: 45/High.
Track Record: A position player at Houston in 2019 and 2020 before transferring to Indiana, Yoho had Tommy John surgery twice in college and knee surgery in 2022. After seeing limited time on the mound in college, the Brewers signed the reliever for $10,000 as an eighth-round pick in 2023. He had a rapid rise in 2024, climbing three levels to finish in Triple-A Nashville and share the organization’s minor league pitcher of the year award with righthander K.C. Hunt.
Scouting Report: Yoho doesn’t throw hard, but he has a devastating changeup that was key to him producing a 42% strikeout rate in 2024. Yoho has above-average control and pitches at 91-94 mph. It’s below-average velocity but with excellent armside run of typically 18-19 inches from his low release height. Yoho’s changeup is his money-making pitch. It looks like a fastball out of his hand and has similar armside movement, but at 77-81 mph it has 13-14 mph of separation off his fastball and parachutes at the plate. The combination of deception and movement makes it a plus-plus pitch that he throws more than 40% of the time and still produced a miss rate just above 50% against both lefties and righties. Yoho has tight rotation on a 75-78 mph curveball that’s a tick above-average and breaks like a slider. It’s a pitch he typically uses either early or ahead in the count and gets a surprising amount of empty swings.
The Future: Yoho’s lack of high-octane velocity makes some scouts think he will fit a mid-leverage relief role, but his changeup might just be so dominant that he could become a high-leverage reliever. He should factor into Milwaukee’s bullpen picture early in 2025.
Scouting Grades: Fastball: 45 | Curveball: 55 | Changeup: 70 | Control: 55.