Brewers fans knew that when right hander Brandon Woodruff underwent surgery in October that he’d miss a good chunk of the 2024 campaign. However, it now appears as though Woodruff will sit out the entirety of the upcoming season in an effort to be 100% healthy for 2025.
Currently recovering from a surgical procedure on his right shoulder, Woodruff told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal that a return to the mound this season is now out of the cards. Instead, his focus will be on building back up his arm strength for next year.
“Honestly, I’m going to be the strongest I’ll ever be at any point in my career because I’m gonna have a year and just basically get my body ready for pitching,” Woodruff told reporters. The 31 year old has begun to play catch, but is still a ways away from any kind of live pitching component in his recovery.
Woodruff, who missed 4 months of action due to a subscapularis strain in his shoulder, went 5-1 with a 2.28 ERA across 11 starts in 2023. Because of his injury and subsequent surgery, Woodruff and the Brewers find themselves in a unique situation.
Coming to the end of his deal in 2024, and knowing that he’d be injured for most of the campaign, the club and player came to terms on a back loaded two year $17.5M contract in February. That new deal will see him earn $2.5M in 2024 while he recovers, $5M in 2025, followed by a $20M mutual option for 2026. The 2026 season includes a $10M buyout option.
Under the terms of the new contract, Woodruff will be able to rehab with the club, and will then essentially have a 1 year “prove it” season in 2025, before he’s able to reevaluate his options.
Originally selected by the Texas Rangers in the 5th round of the 2011 MLB Draft, Woodruff opted not to sign out of high school and instead attended Mississippi State to play collegiately. He would then go on to be drafted following his junior year by Milwaukee in the 11th round of the 2014 MLB Draft.
Since then, he’s spent the entirety of his 7 year MLB career with the club posting a 46-26 record, with 788 K’s across 680.1 IP. His 3.10 ERA and 1.045 WHIP during that span helped to earn him two All-Star appearances and a 5th place in the 2021 NL Cy Young race.
His absence, coupled with Milwaukee’s trade of ace Corbin Burnes to Baltimore earlier this offseason suddenly leaves the defending NL Central champions with a massive hole at the front of their rotation. 27 year old Freddy Peralta will take the mound for the team’s season opener vs. the New York Mets on Thursday, but beyond him, things could get interesting for the Brew Crew in 2024.
Right handers Colin Rea, Jakob Junis, and Joe Ross will likely be counted on to eat up some innings in the interim. Meanwhile, 25 year old DL Hall, who has only 33IP at the MLB level under his belt is likely to see a steady dose of starts as well.
With the loss of their two best arms, and some offseason additions on the part of their division rivals, Milwaukee suddenly finds themselves with the 4th longest odds to win the NL Central with most sports books having them comfortably behind the Cardinals (+135), Cubs (+210), and Reds (+350). Only the Pittsburgh Pirates (+1800) have a worse outlook to begin the season than the Brewers (+650) at the moment.
All that to say however, Milwaukee has surprised people before. But if they’re to defend their divisional crown this season, they’ll likely need some reinforcements from the minors or via trade at some point in 2024.
Photo: Ian D’Andrea. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.