You can count the days and (kind of) the spring starts, or you can just listen to Pat Murphy talk about the progress of veterans Brandon Woodruff and Quinn Priester. Either approach will lead you to the same guess: Jacob Misiorowski is increasingly likely to be the Brewers’ Opening Day starter. Although he hasn’t yet appeared in a Cactus League game—and still won’t this week, as the team opted to have him start Tuesday’s exhibition against Great Britain instead—he’s becoming a choice so obvious it feels nigh inevitable.

Brandon Woodruff pitched a simulated game Sunday on the stadium mound at American Family Fields of Phoenix. He pitched two innings—the team originally planned for three, but the change came before the actual session, and wasn’t prompted by any injury concern—and threw 34 pitches. He got knocked around by teammates in the first inning, seemingly focusing solely on rhythm and comfort. In the second frame, however, he got down the mound with much greater intensity, and his stuff ticked up. He struck out one and retired all four batters he faced in the second frame, artificially stretching it to reach the pitch count the team had scheduled.

However, Woodruff’s progression remains notably deliberate. The Brewers reported Tuesday that he’s on track to begin the season in the rotation, but that could mean at the end of the first week, rather than on Opening Day. Meanwhile, Quinn Priester has been handled even more cautiously. Murphy said there were “a lot of flashing red lights” around Priester entering camp, due to his relatively heavy workload in 2025 and the wrist issue that nagged him at the end of the season. Though he’s officially 100% healthy (as reported both by the manager and by the organization), he won’t appear in the first turn through the rotation, either.

That leaves Misiorowski in competition with a series of even less experienced and/or less tenured starters, led by Chad Patrick, Brandon Sproat, Logan Henderson and Kyle Harrison—not for a rotation spot (he’s easily secured that much) but for the honor of toeing the rubber on Opening Day. If he gets that chance, he’s ready—and eager.

“Yeah, it’d be really cool,” Misiorowski said. “It’d be really fun to start off the season like that—you know, first Opening Day in the big leagues and I get to start it, that’d be crazy.”

His first highly visible step toward that honor will come Tuesday, and although it won’t officially be as a representative of the United States, it’s a taste of something he hopes he gets a chance to do down the road.

“Of course,” he said, when asked if he’s thought about pitching for Team USA in the next WBC. “I think it’s a career goal for anyone. I think, representing your country, and if that could be at the WBC or if that’s in the Olympics [in 2028] or whatever, I think that’s always a goal for an athlete.”

Misiorowski didn’t hear from Team USA at all this time around, but it probably wouldn’t have been the right time, anyway. Instead, he gets to keep his full attention on the season ahead, and the chance that he’ll be the ace of the staff—not by midseason or by October, but from Day 1.

Williams, Lockridge Out with Minor Injuries

Brandon Lockridge had a chance to win a spot on the Opening Day roster, but those hopes dimmed last week, when he suffered a rotator cuff contusion on a dive into a base. He’s 3-5 days from returning to game action, but there will still be time for the 2025 trade deadline acquisition to impress the team between the end of this week and Milwaukee breaking camp. Losing reps during the absence of Jackson Chourio, when playing time will be available in abundance, is a tough break, though.

Similarly, Jett Williams will be unable to fully avail himself of the absences of Brice Turang and Joey Ortiz. He was diagnosed with a mild quad strain in his left leg Tuesday, after the team had initially believed he was dealing only with a contusion. Williams’s target for return to play in the Cactus League is mid-March, by which time he might miss the chance to play in the places of the Crew’s starting double-play combination. 

In all likelihood, Williams would have begun the season at Triple-A Nashville anyway, as Murphy said multiple times over the last week-plus. However, the skipper acknowledged that reading his MRI led the team to back off from a more aggressive initial plan to get him back on the field.

“Yeah, I think it did,” Murphy said, when asked whether imaging changed the plan for the young utility man. However, he also said Williams reported being “ready to go” and that the quad felt “80 percent good” just two days after he injured it on Feb. 23. The length of time for which he’ll be sidelined reflects the team’s desire to play it safe, rather than the severity of the injury.