Reporting by Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The greatest season ever by a Milwaukee Brewers pitcher finishes with some rightful hardware.
Jacob Misiorowski, two weeks after being the winning pitcher in the closeout game of the World Series, was the unanimous winner of the National League Cy Young Award on Wednesday, Nov. 11.
Misiorowski becomes the fourth Brewers pitcher to win the award, joining Rollie Fingers (1981), Pete Vuckovich (1982) and Corbin Burnes (2021). And of all those seasons, Misiorowski’s is indisputably tops.
Misiorowski led all of baseball with a 1.80 earned run average and 252 strikeouts, posting a 16-5 record across 174 ⅔ innings.
The sixth-youngest pitcher to win the award, the 24-year-old Misiorowski ran away from the competition over the final four months of the season.
Misiorowski, fueled by a strong postseason to finish his rookie year, entered the 2026 season stronger thanks to off-season training that added 20 pounds and focused on his lower half. The results in his improved control were immediately noticeable.
Long known for his electric stuff but spotty control, Misiorowski walked just 10 batters across nine starts from April 14 through May 31.
After showcasing breakout potential through the first month of the year, a May 1 start against the Washington Nationals was the turning point for Misiorowski. That night in Washington, he threw 5 ⅓ scoreless innings before a leg cramp forced him out of the game.
That kicked off one of the most dominant two-month stretches ever by a starter, as Misiorowski allowed four earned runs across 66 ⅓ innings (0.54 ERA) while striking out 95 and walking 14. He missed an immaculate inning (three strikeouts on nine pitches) against the New York Yankees on May 8 by fractions of an inch in what may have been the most electric inning ever thrown by a starter to that point.
A few weeks later, Misiorowski outdid even that.
On June 12, Misiorowski opened the game with three strikeouts and nine of 12 pitches at 102 mph or faster, including eight at 103-plus. He went on to deliver one of the greatest starts in MLB history, striking out 15 in a shutout that required only 95 pitches to do so. Misiorowski came within a Kyle Schwarber single in the fourth inning of a perfect game and didn’t have a single three-ball count all night.
After going full-octane through three months and earning an all-star nod, Misiorowski experienced some fatigue around the all-star break, leading to the Brewers backing off the gas with him a bit. He skipped one start and slowly eased back into action but still pitched well out of the break, recording a 1.85 ERA over his first six starts of the second half.
Misiorowski did not finish a single day with an ERA over 2.00 after May 19.
His season was historically elite on many fronts, including holding batters to the lowest average (.157) by any qualified starter in MLB history.
Misiorowski’s 31.3% strikeout-minus-walk rate was the third-best of any qualified starter ever, as well.
Misiorowski became only the second pitcher since 1985 to have a sub-2.00 ERA as a qualified starter on a 100-win team.
Capping it all, of course, was a World Series run in which Misiorowski was a central piece. Even while not at his most dominant, Misiorowski still had a 1.89 ERA over four starts – all Brewers wins – and 19 innings. Misiorowski’s 5 ⅔ scoreless innings before exiting with another cramp in Game 5 of the World Series helped bring the first title in franchise history home.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Unanimous! Jacob Misiorowski caps greatest year by a Brewers pitcher with Cy Young
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