The Miz (10 K's again) not interested in Deadline: 'Yeah, I'm good'

ANAHEIM – Jacob Misiorowski was on the mound for Sunday’s 3-0 Brewers loss to the Angels in his team’s final game before Monday’s 5 p.m. CT Trade Deadline. Yes, he’s been following developments. But no, he hasn’t spent too much time thinking about the possibility the Brewers could fortify the staff around him.

“I’m looking at the guys that we have,” Misiorowski said coming into the weekend. “I think we have a shot with this team.”

Milwaukee’s 24-year-old ace had far less to say on the topic of trades after struggling with the Angel Stadium mound for seven innings and filling the strike zone at a higher rate than ever before, all while the front office was working the phones in the final hours to trade for reinforcements.

He departed in the eighth in a 2-0 deficit after a duel with Angels rookie right-hander Walbert Ureña, an impressive 22-year-old with a 2.54 ERA after he dealt six scoreless innings against the Brewers in his 20th game and 18th start. But that wasn’t exactly the fault of Misiorowski, who was burned by Wade Meckler’s two-run homer in the second inning. Misiorowski went on to retire 17 of the 18 hitters he faced the rest of the way while throwing 79.5 percent strikes (a new personal best for the regular season or postseason) and striking out 10 Angels in Misiorowski’s 10th double-digit strikeout performance of the season in 21 starts – already a single-season franchise record.

Ben Sheets had nine double-digit strikeout games in 2004, the year he struck out 264 batters to set a club mark that still stands, and Corbin Burnes had nine double-digit strikeout games in 2022, the year he became the first pitcher in Brewers history to lead his league in whiffs.

Both of those distinctions are under threat from Misiorowski, who has been fronting a young starting staff that, at the moment, is composed entirely of pitchers who entered this season with less than two years of Major League experience. That includes the well-traveled Kyle Harrison, who is poised to return from the 15-day injured list on Wednesday against the Pirates.

The next 24 hours will tell whether that’s the Brewers’ only addition to the staff this week. They are in the market for starters and relievers, and have signaled a more aggressive approach than recent years that included interest in the top arm available: Tigers ace Tarik Skubal.

But that won’t be happening. On Saturday night, the Dodgers reached an agreement to send three top prospects to Detroit for the left-handed ace, besting other suitors like the Brewers, Yankees and Cubs.

“Obviously it would be awesome if you get a guy like that,” Misiorowski said earlier this weekend, when Skubal was still on the table. “But that’s not for us. You can’t be a GM. The clubhouse GM has never worked. You have to let the guys upstairs take care of it and play with the guys you’ve got."

He was taking his own advice on Sunday afternoon, because when a reporter attempted a question about the Deadline, Misiorowski had none of it.

“I’m good. I don’t want to answer it,” he said.

Even about the Dodgers adding another ace?

“Not even – yeah, I’m good,” he said. “You can just stop the question.”

In Misiorowski, the Brewers have a frontrunner for the NL Cy Young Award as the calendar flipped to August, MLB’s leader in ERA (1.63), strikeouts (195), opponents’ average (.145) and WHIP (0.73). The Brewers would love to add a frontline arm or even an experienced innings-eater alongside their young ace, and did make an offer to the Tigers for Skubal before he was dealt to the Dodgers on Saturday night. The Brewers showed much less interest in a reunion with Freddy Peralta, who was traded from the Mets to the Rays on Sunday as the market for starters continued to move.

There are still pitchers available. None of them are Skubal. There’s nothing Brewers players and coaches can do about that now.

“I think this is the best way to put it,” said pitching coach Chris Hook. “There’s so many guys in this room that have to get better, I can’t spend my energies looking outside at who we’re going to acquire when there’s so much work to be done. For me, we’re so driven to get to the World Series, and these guys have got to get a lot better if we’re going to do that. And we’re going to continue to do that every day. That’s the truth. That’s the way I look at it.”

By the time the Brewers take the field against the Pirates on Monday night in Milwaukee, the Trade Deadline will have come and gone.

“We’re in first place because of the guys we have in this room,” said outfielder Sal Frelick, who is rehabbing a shoulder injury. “Yeah, the Trade Deadline can absolutely help you. Absolutely. We’ve made moves every year that I’ve been here so far, so it’s not like we’re not going to make any.”