Reliever Craig Yoho Turns Heads In Brewers Camp
Craig Yoho ultimately did not make the Brewers’ Opening day roster.
What he did do this spring was turn heads—so much so that it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the righthander be one of the initial relievers recalled from Triple-A Nashville.
The 25-year-old Yoho was one of the breakout stories of camp for the Brewers, who drafted him in the eighth round out of Indiana in 2023.
Coming off a 2024 in which he earned first-team minor league all-star status, Yoho pitched 8.2 spring innings, allowing six hits, walking three and striking out 15 in eight appearances.
It’s been an incredible rise for the native of Fishers, Ind. He began his college career as a position player at Houston before transferring to Indiana, where he lost 2021 to Tommy John surgery and 2022 to knee surgery before converting to the mound.
All told, he went 1,082 days between games.
Yoho struck out 63 in 27 innings his final year with the Hoosiers before signing for $10,000 with the Brewers. In his breakout 2024 season he pitched at three levels, struck out 101 and walked 23 in 57.2 innings, notching 10 saves and recording a 0.94 ERA.
The key has been Yoho’s changeup, an offering that is already being compared to former Brewers closer Devin Williams’ famous “airbender.”
Now that Williams is closing games for the Yankees, Yoho is on the list of candidates to one day serve as closer in Milwaukee. But first: a return to Triple-A Nashville.
“That’s a young man with a devastating changeup,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said about a week before Yoho being returned to minor league camp. “He throws enough strikes. He seems like a great young man.
“I think he’s got a great future.”
MICROBREW
— First baseman Tyler Black, who was set back early in camp by a back strain and never was really in the running to make the Opening Day roster, suffered another injury-related setback just prior to Triple-A Nashville’s opener. Black broke the hamate bone in his right hand, an injury that necessitated surgery and a six-to-eight-week recovery period.
