Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez had a simple message for Jacob Misiorowski before the Milwaukee Brewers right-hander took the mound Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs.
"Misiorowski: Keep trusting what you have and don’t fear anyone! I trust you, so trust yourself!" Martinez wrote on X Tuesday night.
The timing fits. Misiorowski has spent the first half of the 2026 season building one of the strongest cases in baseball, and he remains the NL Cy Young favorite entering early September. His start against the Cubs is the next big checkpoint, with Milwaukee and Chicago splitting the first two games of their four-game series.
The Brewers are also sitting comfortably in the NL Central, eight games ahead of the second-place Cubs. The two clubs will meet again next week from Sept. 7-9 at American Family Field, and Misiorowski is likely to take the ball in one of those games too.
Milwaukee has 23 regular-season games left, which means Misiorowski could still make four more starts, including Wednesday night’s outing. The workload has been managed carefully, but the numbers he has already put up are loud: a 14-5 record, a 1.73 ERA, 222 strikeouts and a 0.75 WHIP across 151 innings in 25 starts.
He is almost certainly not going to get to 300 strikeouts, but that hardly takes away from what has been a huge year for the 24-year-old.
That’s why the Martinez comparison keeps coming up. Misiorowski’s 2026 season has most often been measured against Martinez’s 2000 run, the one that helped cement the Hall of Famer’s place among the game’s greats. Martinez went 18-6 that year with a league-best 1.74 ERA, a 0.73 WHIP and 284 strikeouts.
If Misiorowski makes five more starts in the regular season and goes 4-1, he would match Martinez’s win total from that season. He is already right there with Martinez in ERA and WHIP, though the Brewers’ approach means he will not come close to matching the innings or strikeout volume from that historic campaign.
With Milwaukee limiting his workload and rolling through the division, Misiorowski may finish somewhere in the 175- to 180-inning range. Martinez ended 2000 with 217 innings over 29 starts.
Martinez won three Cy Young awards in his career, including his only NL Cy Young with the Montreal Expos in 1997 before taking back-to-back AL honors with the Red Sox in 1999 and 2000.
Misiorowski could be on the verge of his first major hardware in just his second MLB season, and the way this year has unfolded, there may be even more ahead.
In Other News...
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Ornelas gives Milwaukee a useful safety valve because he has big-league experience with multiple clubs and can cover several spots around the diamond, including both infield and outfield duties. For a Brewers team that values versatility as much as almost any club in the game, it is the kind of low-key move that can matter if the roster starts to thin out in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Playoff Pitching Outlook Just Got More Concerning With Kyle Harrison
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The latest warning came against the Cubs, who jumped on Harrison for nine earned runs in 3 innings. Chicago took advantage of both the reduced velocity and pitch tipping, a combination that has raised more questions than answers about how sharp Harrison really is after the injury. For Milwaukee, any pitchers dip matters this time of year, and this one now looks like a problem worth monitoring closely. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Could Face A William Contreras Decision Fans Wont Ignore
Austin Wells has given the Yankees a little more behind the plate, but the catching market could still be one of the more interesting parts of their offseason, and William Contreras would sit near the top of it. For Milwaukee, the question is less about whether Contreras has value and more about how much value the Brewers are willing to entertain. He remains one of the clubs most important bats, and his defense has taken a step forward, which only sharpens the stakes if front offices start calling.
Contreras is also entering the final year of his contract in 2027, a detail that naturally puts him on the radar for teams looking to upgrade at catcher. The Yankees would make sense as one of the clubs to watch, but the bigger issue for the Brewers is whether they want to keep pushing forward with an All-Star centerpiece or listen to the kind of trade offer that could force a difficult choice. For a team that tends to balance contention with payroll reality, this is the sort of decision that can linger all winter. [Read more 🡒]