This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy's Brewers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
MILWAUKEE -- Jacob Misiorowski’s final fastball during Wednesday’s duel with Pirates ace Paul Skenes registered 99.5 mph, according to Statcast. His next pitch, a slider for a called third strike to end the fifth inning, was his 74th pitch of the afternoon.
He wanted to keep pitching. By every indication, he could have. But in the first indication of the caution the Brewers will take with the 23-year-old budding ace’s workload during his first summer in the Major Leagues, the club went to the bullpen.
“I understood,” said Misiorowski, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Brewers' No. 4 prospect. “I think the competitor in me wanted to go [out to the mound] again and keep going, because I thought I could. But I completely understand. They’re trying to do what’s best for me. I think it’s just part of the game.”
Teams have a multitude of ways to scientifically measure wear and tear on pitchers these days, including monitoring the movement of every pitch in real time. They also know that every inning isn’t created equal in terms of the stress on a pitcher, and they track that, too.
The old rule of thumb was to try to stay within a 50% innings increase year over year. For example, Misiorowski threw 97 1/3 regular-season innings last season between Double-A Biloxi and Triple-A Nashville, with a lighter load late in the year when the Brewers shifted him to relief to both control his innings and position Misiorowski for a potential callup to the big league bullpen.
Using the old rudimentary guide, officials would start watching very closely when Misiorowski approaches 140-150 innings this season. He is at 79 1/3 innings when you combine his 63 1/3 innings at Nashville and his 16 stellar innings in three Major League starts.
That leaves about 65-70 innings before he surpasses the 50% jump. At his pace from his first three MLB starts (5 1/3 innings per), he would get to that territory in about 12 more starts.
“We just want to be smart about it, that’s all,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said, “like we would any other pitcher, whether they’re throwing 99 [mph] or 92. You’ve got to take some precautions for his health and understand what he’s done in the past.
“It’s like training a marathon runner. You don’t just run the 26 [miles]. You probably could. Instead you run 12 or 14 and you train a little bit. I don’t know exact marathon training, but I guarantee you could physically do it, but what’s that going to mean for down the road? I think we’re trying to do the same thing.”
There are options to manage a pitcher’s workload. Teams can employ shorter starts, like the Brewers did Wednesday in pulling Misiorowski at five innings -- a decision influenced in part by the fact he was pitching on four days’ rest for the first time in the Majors.
Teams can also add extra days between starts, which has become common practice even for veteran arms during pitching coach Chris Hook’s tenure. Teams accomplish that via off-days on the schedule or by adding a sixth starter here and there. Milwaukee is well-stocked, with last year’s Brewers most valuable pitcher, Tobias Myers, and another top prospect, Logan Henderson, pitching at Triple-A.
Another option is to insert a summer vacation of sorts and skip a start at a point it makes sense. All of those choices are under consideration.
Then there’s the off-the-field strain, which the Brewers are taking measures to reduce. On Friday, the club informed the club’s broadcasters and beat writers that Misiorowski’s media availability for the time being would be limited to the day before he starts and postgame after his outings. Other clubs employ a similar policy with high-profile pitchers.
“It’s coming,” said Murphy of the down-the-road matter of Misiorowski’s workload. “You saw us take him out after 74 pitches, right? And he gets it. He gets it.”