Description

Jacob Misiorowski's path to the Brewers rotation was anything but smooth. A 6-foot-7 right-hander out of Blue Springs, Missouri, he carried an LSU scholarship offer into the 2022 draft but had already been slowed by a hamstring problem that kept him out of showcases, a lost 2020 season, and a torn meniscus in 2021. The Brewers still took him in the second round, 63rd overall, and paid an over-slot bonus to pull him away from college ball. His first taste of pro ball was rough — two appearances, seven walks in under two innings — and he spent the next two seasons bouncing between levels as the Brewers tried to sort out whether the electric arm could also throw enough strikes to start. By August 2024 the club had moved him to the bullpen at Triple-A Nashville as a hedge, even while insisting his long-term future was as a starter. That bet paid off. Entering 2025 as just the Brewers' third-ranked prospect, he tore through Triple-A with a sub-2.20 ERA and climbed into the sport's top-25 prospect rankings by June. When Milwaukee called him up that June, he didn't ease into the majors — his Topps Now card commemorates him becoming the 1st Starting Pitcher Since 1900 to Start Career with 11 No Hit Innings. What followed was one of the more startling debut arcs in recent memory. Misiorowski's fastball, already the best in the system on scouting reports, kept climbing in the majors. In 2026 he threw a first-inning fastball clocked at 105.5 mph, breaking his own record for the fastest pitch recorded by a starting pitcher in the pitch tracking era, a mark that was tied for the third fastest by any pitcher, starter or reliever, in the pitch-tracking era, out of only thirteen pitches ever recorded at 105 mph since 2008. He is the only pitcher on record who has hit 105 mph as a starter. He backed the velocity with results, making the All-Star team as a rookie in 2025 and again in 2026, and by mid-September 2026 he stood at 20-8 with a 2.60 ERA and 330 strikeouts in the big leagues. This card is one of Misiorowski's first Topps-licensed issues to arrive after that rookie breakout, part of the 2026 Topps Series 1 "Stars of MLB" insert set. It captures a pitcher whose rise from juco question mark to record-setting flamethrower happened almost entirely in the space of two seasons — a career still writing its early chapters, with the fastball doing most of the talking.