ATLANTA — MLB’s accelerating youth movement took another big step late Friday as Brewers rookie pitcher Jacob Misiorowski, who has just five games of major-league experience, was named as a replacement to the National League All-Star team.
The 23-year-old Misiorowski, who throws as hard as 103 miles per hour, will take the spot of Cubs pitcher Matthew Boyd, who is set to pitch against the Yankees on Saturday and won’t be available for the July 15 event at Truist Park. Misirowski shatters the record set last year by Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes, who started the 2024 All-Star Game for the NL after 11 games of MLB experience.
Misiorowski’s meteoric rise follows a somewhat similar path as Skenes. Like the Pirates fireballer, Misiorowski entered the major leagues as an early-season callup, and from the outset, asserted his presence with authority, further burnished by his 6-foot-7 frame. Misiorowski has a 4–1 record and a 2.81 earned run average with 33 strikeouts in 25.2 innings pitched.
Unlike Skenes, who has existed continually in the limelight thanks to a dominant collegiate career and his relationship with girlfriend Livvy Dunne, a former LSU star gymnast and prominent NIL and social-media influencer, Misiorowski has been a much more anonymous figure outside of baseball.
“He’s just broken the shell, man,” said Brewers manager Pat Murphy earlier this week after Misiorowski dominated the defending-champion Dodgers. “He’s just broken the egg … and he’s still got gooey stuff coming off him, all arms and legs. There’s something special about him.”
Just two years ago, Misiorowski pitched in the MLB All-Star Futures Game, an annual showcase of top minor-league prospects and a prelude to the All-Star Game itself.
As a rookie, Misioriowski makes the MLB minimum of $760,000. Players on the winning All-Star team split an $800,000 prize, totaling approximately $25,000 per player.
Swelling Rosters
Misiorowski, meanwhile, is now just one of 16 players named in recent days as a replacement player to the All-Star team. The Midsummer Classic, particularly for pitchers, is a delicate proposition in which the event is a significant marketing vehicle for the league, but also an exhibition game in which everybody involved seeks to avoid player injuries. That concern has helped spark the run of roster changes, and as a result, 80 players have now been named 2025 All-Stars.
The spate of new players, and particularly the inclusion of Misiorowski, also furthers a youth-driven element already present in the All-Star Game rosters. The wave, however, still has not included Mets outfielder Juan Soto, MLB’s highest-paid player.
Not everyone in baseball is on board with the inclusion of Misiorowski.
“That’s just how MLB does it now,” Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto told The Athletic. “Nothing against the Misiorowski kid, but [Philadelphia pitchers Ranger Suarez and Cristopher Sanchez] are deserving of being on the team in the first place. There’s no doubt.”
