Former Missouri high school baseball star with blazing 103 mph fastball to make Major League debut with Brewers

Take a look back on the high school career of former Grain Valley pitching phenom, and newest Milwaukee Brewers Major Leaguer, Jacob Misiorowski

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski (93) warms up during spring training workouts Saturday, February 15, 2025, at the American Family Fields of Phoenix in Phoenix, Arizona. / Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Folks around Grain Valley, Missouri, knew they had something special in their confines long before the rest of the nation knew who Jacob Misiorowski was – and certainly before anyone outside of his closest friends and family knew how to spell his last name.

Just over five years to the day that he graduated from Grain Valley High School, Misiorowski is headed to the Major Leagues. Misiorowski, who has had his fastball clocked up to 103 mph, got the call on Tuesday from the Milwaukee Brewers. He is expected to start their game on Thursday against the St. Louis Cardinals in Milwaukee. If that holds, he will be facing Cardinals right hander Sonny Gray.

To say that Misiorowski’s talent has exceeded expectations of evaluators – at least for those outside of Grain Valley – is a fair statement. While he was highly rated coming out of high school, at the time of his graduation Perfect Game didn’t even have Misiorowski as one of the top five right handers in the state – he was No. 6 in that department, and the No. 13 overall prospect in the state.

What’s more – Misiorowski was rated No. 255 among all right handers nationally and No. 500 overall – coming out of high school. Hindsight being 20/20, of course.

Of the players ranked ahead of him in Missouri that season, only two – No. 1 Jacob Eddington and No. 10 Tavian Josenberger – are currently playing in affiliated ball. Eddington, a Poplar Bluff native and 7th-round pick by the Philadelphia Phillies in out of Missouri State in 2023, is at Single-A Clearwater. Josenberger, who attended Park Hill and was selected by the Baltimore Orioles out of Arkansas in the third round of the 2023 draft, is currently batting .177 and on the 7-day Injured List at Double-A Bowie.  

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski tosses a football while waiting for a drill during spring training workouts Tuesday, February 18, 2025, at American Family Fields of Phoenix in Phoenix, Arizona. / Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Of course, evaluating the talent in 2020 was a bit trickier than most years. Like so many young athletes during that time, Misiorowski lost his senior year of baseball when the COVID-19 pandemic sacked the season.

Without the lost season, it’s hard to say exactly how Misiorowski’s career would have been different. He stood 6-foot-5 and weighed 160 pounds as a senior with a fastball that ticked into the mid to upper 90s. He went 9-2 with a 1.48 ERA as a junior at Grain Valley and displayed enough on the mound to earn an all-state selection and a commitment to Oklahoma State.

But he never made it to the Cowboys. During his junior season, Misiorowski and Grain Valley traveled to Neosho, Missouri, to play the Wildcats – a game that Grain Valley won. Little did Misiorowski know at the time, he would end up making Neosho home for his college baseball – joining perennial NJCAA Division I power Crowder College in Neosho rather than attending Oklahoma State.

The move paid off. The big right hander dazzled enough at Crowder to become a second-round pick by the Brewers in the 2022 draft. Now in the big leagues, he'll join a familiar face on the Milwaukee roster. While they didn’t play together at Crowder, Brewers left hander Aaron Ashby – a Kansas City native and Park Hill grad – is also a Roughriders alum who was a fourth-round pick by the Brewers out of Crowder in 2018.  

Mar 2, 2024; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski (93) on the mound in the eighth during a spring training game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at American Family Fields of Phoenix. Mandatory Credit: Allan Henry-Imagn Images / Allan Henry-Imagn Images

Both players spent time as Milwaukee’s No. 1 overall prospect at points during their minor league careers. For Misiorowski, the ranking was just more proof of the meteoric ascension he's been on since that dreaded No. 13 ranking out of high school.

And while the road to The Show probably isn’t what Misiorowski (now 6-foot-7, 190) – or anyone in Grain Valley – envisioned it would look like, the end to the means was always - at least in their minds - this.

Jacob Misiorowski – tall, lanky, fire-throwing right hander from Grain Valley high school – is a Major Leaguer.

---

More Missouri stories from High School On SI:

feed