The Brewers officially announced the re-signing of Brandon Woodruff on Wednesday evening. It’s a two-year pact with a mutual option for the 2026 season. The McKinnis Sports client is reportedly guaranteed $17.5MM on a backloaded deal. He’ll be paid $2.5MM for the upcoming season and a modest $5MM salary in 2025. The bulk of the money is concentrated in a $10MM buyout on the mutual option, which is valued at $20MM. Woodruff receives full no-trade rights.
Milwaukee placed the righty on the 60-day injured list within a couple hours of announcing the deal. That created the necessary 40-man roster spot for Gary Sánchez, who also finalized his contract on Wednesday.
Woodruff, 31, has spent his entire career with the Brewers but it seemed like that relationship was perhaps going to end at some point. Not too long ago, the Brewers had three key players that were all on track to make eight-figure arbitration salaries in 2024 before reaching free agency. Woodruff was one of those, along with fellow righty Corbin Burnes and shortstop Willy Adames. Given the way the club operates, it was expected that at least one of that group would be traded for salary relief and to restock some future talent.
But Woodruff dealt with shoulder issues throughout 2023 and wound up requiring surgery in October, which put his 2024 season in jeopardy. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected the righty for a salary of $11.6MM, a hefty amount for a pitcher who may not throw at all this year, especially for a lower-budget club like the Brewers. They reportedly explored some trade scenarios but ultimately just non-tendered Woodruff, sending him out to free agency.
That gave every club the chance to sign him, with the Mets having reported interest at one point. Their new president of baseball operations David Stearns is plenty familiar with Woodruff, as his time with the Brewers began the year after the righty was drafted. But in the end, Woodruff will be returning to Milwaukee to continue his tenure as a Brewer.
A two-year deal was always the most likely scenario for Woodruff. Pitchers facing lengthy layoffs like this, usually due to Tommy John surgery, often sign such pacts. That time frame allows the player to collect a paycheck while injured, while also giving the club a chance to potentially get a healthy full season at a relatively discounted rate. Woodruff’s situation is slightly different since he’s coming back from shoulder surgery rather than elbow surgery, but the logic is the same.
When healthy, Woodruff has been one of the better pitchers in the game. He has a 3.10 earned run average in his career, having struck out 28.9% of batters faced, walked just 6.5% of them and kept 42.8% of balls in play on the ground. Among pitchers with at least 650 innings pitched since the start of the 2017 season, that ERA ranks sixth in the majors.
But staying on the mound has been a bit of an issue for him, as he’s yet to hit 180 innings pitched in any big league season. In his big league career, he’s gone on the injured list due to a strained left oblique, a right ankle sprain and the aforementioned shoulder problems from last year.
Regardless, the Brewers are surely happy to get Woodruff back into the fold, as his results have clearly been excellent when he’s been able to take the ball. They have subtracted Burnes from this year’s rotation, having traded him to the Orioles, leaving Freddy Peralta as the de facto ace. They also acquired DL Hall in that Burnes deal, with the lefty hoping to earn a rotation spot this year. They also re-signed Wade Miley and Colin Rea while adding Jakob Junis and Joe Ross into the mix via free agency.
If Woodruff can get healthy by the end of the year, he’ll jump into that mix and help the club for the stretch run. Looking ahead to 2025, there’s not a lot of certainty for the Milwaukee rotation. Peralta is entering the final guaranteed year of his contract, though he has $8MM club options for next year and the year after, with those a virtual lock to be triggered as long as he’s healthy. Miley and Junis have mutual options for next year, with those almost never picked up by both sides. The club has a ’25 option for Rea at a modest $5.5MM salary and $1MM buyout, making it a net $4.5MM decision, but it’s not a lock they would trigger that with his inconsistent track record. Hall still isn’t established as a capable big league starter.
Taking all of that into consideration, there’s very little that can be written in ink for next year’s rotation. There are some prospects near the majors who could step up, such as Robert Gasser and Jacob Misiorowski, but it makes a lot of sense to bring Woodruff back into the fold and hopefully have him come back healthy and effective by then. If that comes to pass, he and Peralta would give the club a strong front two next year, with three spots available for younger guys or future additions.
Jon Heyman of the New York Post first reported the Brewers were signing Woodruff to a two-year deal. The Associated Press reported the financial details and the no-trade clause.
I thought Stearns was going to jump in…
Not the first time a Brew has led to a Woody
Adames for Sheehan… call it an offseason.
Dodgers would pass on that.
I meant as the base of a trade figure out the rest… I’m sure tossing in Taylor and money makes you rethink that.
When lux goes down again you don’t want rojas playing SS again.
Ellis
“you don’t want rojas playing SS again.”
Yes. That DEFINITELY sunk the team last year
Adames for Austin Winn
Emotion got in the way
Wait did the dodgers win it all last year? A better shortstop wouldn’t have improved your chances?
Elis
“Wait did the dodgers win it all last year?”
No
“A better shortstop wouldn’t have improved your chances?”
Yes
But it still remains true that the Dodgers could have won with Rojas and Rojas was in no way the problem
Yeah and Bryan Reynolds could have won with the pirates and wasnt the problem, so let’s not improve. Could of doesn’t mean you did.. they didn’t win jack, you don’t think seagar still their they don’t win it? Rojas wasn’t the problem though right? “Could of” gets you exactly where 28 other teams go.
And with how much they spend.. with double the TV money on anyone… yeah Rojas is a hole on that team. You don’t think they will invest another 15 million to protect their 300 mil a yr investment? So they just won’t make deadline deals this yr because they are in the tax? Ludicrous.
Ellis
“they didn’t win jack”
They won 100 games with Rojas as the primary SS
“so let’s not improve.”
No one is saying that
“you don’t think seagar still their they don’t win it? ”
I don’t understand this attempt at a sentence
“Rojas wasn’t the problem though right?”
No. The starting pitching was the biggest problem in Last year’s series.
The offense was the second biggest.
If they could do a redo
1) rolling the dice again would almost certainly lead to a better result. I wouldn’t expect the offense to be so anemic.
2) the pitching probably wouldn’t be as bad either
3) Seager wouldn’t have been enough for them to win if everything else turned out the same way
Rojas wasn’t the reason they lost that series
You don’t think they would pay off all but the vet minimum to see taylor play for a different team? That’s just money.. the value is the roster spot, and improving Rojas’ roster spot is worth more than money, especially for a team that doesn’t have to care about money.
Ellis
:looks at the new goalposts:
“You don’t think they would pay off all but the vet minimum to see taylor play for a different team? ”
Are we done for good with the old goal posts orc are we going to go back to them at some point?
Not really. Dodgers don’t need to shed Taylor’s contract, and they certainly wouldn’t deal Sheehan to cut payroll.
Now make it Adames and Williams for Sheehan and others, then they may get interested.
Not a move you can make when you’re paying 100% luxury tax
Classy move Brew Crew
More of an opportunistic move. I don’t mean that as a negative, but it is what it is.
From his side, makes sense to stick with the team and coaches he knows while rehabbing.
They need to get over a playoff hump, so they’re going to need more than status quo
Derp.
Then they shouldn’t have traded Burnes.
Exactly. When the brewers traded burnes they went from potentially winning 88-90 games this year to winning 80-83 Losing woody hurts this year but trade burnes your telling the fan base your not interested in winning the division imo and
winning 88-90 games this year to winning 80-83
===========================
So Burnes is that rare 8-9 WAR pitcher?
More like 72-74 games
“Classy move”..Not to sound like a jerk but It’s business, not personal. When they released him it was not “un-classy” and re-signing him is smart business not “class”. “Class” implies they are doing this as an act of charity, when it’s actually a strictly business decision.
You do realize that it’s commendable to be a class act and run a smart business. They’re not mutually exclusive attributes. Class has little to do with charity. Class means you see attributes in an individual that transcend the simple mechanics of business and instead elevate the larger community. It’s called esprit de corps.
A $10 million buy out in the greater context of his situation and previous relationship with the team, is classy. That’s an unusually high buy out in general to say nothing of a pitcher coming off an arm injury. This is worth celebrating.
I view it as smart business by the brew crew. Cuz if they do trade him, that 10M is on the acquiring team to pay
I was hoping the Brewers would do this.
Good for them.
Yeah, I was kinda hoping the reds would do this .
Right there with you.
Replacement for Montas after this year would have been nice, but maybe not needed with Lowter, Phillips and Petty.
I would not have wished the Reds to do this. The man will not contribute this season and possibly never will during the life of the contract. There are pitchers that returned to the mound and had little success after a shoulder surgery. Sure everyone responds differently. However it’s a risky contract for the team. Great move for the Brew crew only. I suspect he had limited interest from other teams.
That was a very classy move on the brewers end
Very smart move by the Brewers. Worst case he misses the whole two years somehow and they have that sunk cost.
I would bet he comes back on schedule looks good to great and they have a choice to make at the deadline wherever the team is at in 2025 to keep him, try to extend, or deal him.
I was hoping the Pirates would’ve made a play here.
Whether it’s smart or not remains to be seen. He’s been a fan favorite, so it’s a good PR move. Shoulder injuries like his are reportedly really tough to come back from, so we’ll just have to keep fingers crossed that they can successfully rehab it.
With the information we have currently available it is a smart move. Any decision can be analyzed after all the pieces are presented, but at this current moment I don’t see this as anything but a smart move.
A low risk gamble on a great starting pitcher when healthy.
Financial terms would be helpful to gauge the risk here. There were some huge numbers being thrown around out there, along the lines of 2yrs/$25M. I don’t think it’ll be that large.
Even at 2/25 they aren’t risking much. The team likely doesn’t compete this year but maybe 2025. Farm system sitting at 5-6 topp 100s depending on your ranking site they are probably more poised to do better in 25 and on and Woodruff could help that.
The Financials are very low. This is a good move indeed.
Didn’t see that happening but good for them.
That was pretty shady to DFA one of the best pitchers around and not offer him some sort of low AAV contract this year and a mid price it price for next year. Should have been signed a while ago.
They had to dfa him, otherwise he would have gotten like 18m via arb for this season. The only way to avoid that was agreeing to a two year deal instead which they just did.
For sure. They DFA’d him months ago.
He was never DFAd. Just not tendered.
Woodruff was projected for $11.6 million in arbitration. That’s excessive for a pitcher who won’t pitch all season. Still, knowing how this front office operates, if the figure were $18 million they would be probably be looking to trade him regardless of health status.
I don’t see anything shady about this. They would have had to offer him arbitration, which would have led to a 10-figure salary when he is unlikely the pitch this season. They took a reasonable amount of time to work at a two-year deal, which makes sense all around.
8 figure salary. Considering 9 figures is at least a hundred million.
D-Nice,
Yeah, my bad, I meant $10M.
Nothing remotely shady about it.
They had to wait so they could immediately put him on the 60 day injured list, avoiding him taking up a spot on the 40 man roster.
“Pretty shady”…So now following the rules you’ve negotiated with the MLBPA and doing what’s in your team’s best interests is “shady”. Baseball is a business and not necessarily about your “feelings”, my friend.
Shhh you’ll trigger him..
Trigger who!
Didn’t think about the 40 man. You guys are right
Makes the most sense the brewers, can trade him at next year’s deadline to get some value back instead letting him go for nothing. Looks like he’s not coming back this year, thought he was holding out for a midseason deal.
I think Woody wants stability and to be a Brewer. I really can’t see a trade happening, unless Woody wants it. The last sentence of the 1st paragraph states: “Woodruff receives full no-trade rights”
No idea what the Brewers are doing. They sign Hoskins to give the vibe that they are all in and then a couple days or so later gave away Burnes to the Orioles and likely could have gotten that same weak deal at the trade deadline.
They got three top 100 players if you include the pick it wasn’t terrible. They weren’t going to resign burnes anyway, and they can do the same with woodruff next year at the deadline if he recovers.
How do you figure a draft pick is a top 100 prospect? I don’t think you understand how this works. lol.
@roote should’ve said three potential top 100, anyway it’s a first round comp pick most of the first rounders get graded high. Three high end prospects for a rental isn’t a weak return. Trout was picked late in the 1st round. It’s a crapshoot I get it but it’s make sense when they weren’t going to be able to resign him
Cory Ray, Huira, Ethan Small, Where does Eric Brown taken 27th in 2022 rank in top 100. Kodi Medeiros, Taylor Jungmann , Clint Coulter
Its mostly a graveyard for these picks .
I have several of those bobble heads actually, lol. Too bad they never really did much after they play High A for the T-Rats in Appleton.
@joe so my original comment was about someone saying the burnes trade return was weak, I did slip up and said 3 top 100, even at some point the player they draft will be, but I agree that the top 100 rankings doesn’t matter. Just saying three for one wasn’t bad for someone that’s going to leave.
Brewers were fleeced. Should have held out for Mayo.
It seems like you might be overvaluing Hoskins a bit and undervaluing the pieces from the Orioles (I say this as a biased O’s fan).
Hoskins missed all of 2023 and almost half of 2021 with injuries so he’s not a sure thing. When he’s right, the dude mashes…but he’s no Freddie Freeman. I wouldn’t say Hoskins is a “all in” signing even considering the mid-market payroll.
Good deal for the Brewers. They’re rebuilding on the fly. They’ll be competetive this year and in the future, just like always.
Yes if you consider adding 2 pieces into your starting lineup for 1 year of a pitcher that hated the organization ‘a give away’. I hope you become the GM of the Yankees…
They are taking advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. They might have had a Plan ‘A’ but when they don’t work out you simply move on. They probably have a maximum salary budget plus TV revenue issues. It will make more sense once the season starts but they can never make all their fans happy. You should’ve traded for that guy or signed that guy before he signed with team X etc.
On this President’s Day I approve of this message.
This makes me happy as a non-Brewers fan.
Awesome news.
Well Darn, I was hoping my favorite team would have given him a two year deal. Happy for Brewers fans though!
Dang, I wanted the O’s to sign him. It would have been kind of cool/funny if we had a Burnes and Woodruff reunion in Baltimore for the playoffs (hypothetically of course), plus he could have been Burnes’ replacement for next year.
Cool for the Brew Crew though, congrats lads.
My guess is he was waiting on the brewers, don’t see why any team wouldn’t do a two year deal for him.
Yeah, it certainly seems that way and I can definitely respect that.
Possible that they wouldn’t have even played together in that scenario. Only earliest projections of a return have woodruff pitching this year. The likeliest is still reported as to him missing this entire season. So they’d of been reunited pretty much only in spirit.
There have been some reports that he might be able to make it back by September, but it would not surprise me if he misses the whole season either. Still wanted to take a shot though, but this outcome is cool too.
@brew a lot of reports were saying July or august. But this deal suggests he’s out for the year.
@rex I think the only articles I saw stating July as any possibility were usually citing Woodruff himself stating he could possibly be/wanted to be back by July. Most anything medical related I saw stated August at the pretty much absolute earliest. As a Brewers fan, we don’t have much to read except that kind of stuff lol. We know anything about top free agents likely isn’t going to have anything to do with us.
@brew yeah I was reading the same articles, but your right probably not going to return this year, also I think it was mostly coming from his agent. Plus usually when someone says a date it’s usually 2-3 months later.
Logical move
I’d rather have prime Mike Trout.
True
Current Barry Bonds could have helped! Provided he’s kept up on his meds.
Prime Greg Maddux would also be good.
He is pretty skinny now. He rides bikes with my sister in law.
I’m an avid amateur cycler, and it sounds like it’s done wonders for BB. Happy for him.
Don’t disagree, but I think it will come out that Woody really wanted to stay with Milwaukee.
Good signing by Brewers. Guess seeing what Mets and Brewers have done that Arnold is better than Stearns.
Was hoping the Jays would have jumped on this, nice replacement for Kikuchi next season, but alas it will not be
Surprised they haven’t made any other major moves in acquiring another starter yet. There’s a good chance Woodruff doesn’t pitch all year. It was supposed to once again be the 3 headed monster of Burnes-Woodruff-Peralta this coming season but right now it’s Peralta and Wade Miley.
The plan for the Brewers this year is different than years past. In the past you could rely on the top 3 of burnes peralta woodruff and fill out the bottom bottom 2 or 3 in rotation. Now its a cumulative effort to have as many 2-4 IP innings eaters (ala rays) to just get outs. Even if misiorowski or gasser are ready this year I suspect it will be the MO. Use the majority if your 13 pitchers to just eat innings, rely less on 1 innint pitchers, and use the options to shuttle guys like bakauskas up and down throughout the year.
The Brewers won the division with Jhoulys Chacin and Chase Anderson as their top starting pitchers.
They did, but that was behind the one of the best offenses in the NL and the best bullpen in the NL by a mile. If anything, they won in spite of the rotation.
If Woodruff was available and not set on returning to the Brewers, other teams blew it. Good signing by Brewers. I highly, highly doubt Woodruff won’t be very good when he returns even if it is 2025. Why teams who were willing to spend utterly stupid amounts of money on Yamamoto but missed on him did not pony up a fraction of that for Woodruff is a mystery. Dude is damn good when he’s right. I could have seen someone offer him a 3-4 year deal as an investment in future seasons, and it would have been a smart deal. I don’t know what pitchers will be available next winter, but none are likely to be much better than him.
IMO it’s simply the risk. He had an arm issue in the minors in 2015. He got hurt in 2019. Missed 2 starts in 2021 due to arm issues. Missed time in 2022 with an ankle injury and a shoulder injury cost him most of 2023 which ended up requiring surgery. He’s on the wrong side of 30 and you’re paying him even though it’s likely he doesn’t play in 2024, not to mention this is a pretty serious shoulder surgery. He might not be the same after.
If it’s an incentive laden 2 year deal where he makes maybe a base $5 million in 2024 with incentives for appearances, that’s one thing, but it’s clear when the Brewers non-tendered him and how long he went unsigned that no team was comfortable paying him that amount.
Maybe they will defer some of the money in 2024 to make it more reasonable to pay money to a player who wont play much if at all.
As a Brewer fan, I kinda hope they don’t. Payroll is already down for us and I doubt there’s even a minor FA signing to come.
I’d take the big hit this year to keep payroll flexibility next year. Assuming Adames walks or is traded, there’s going to be a LOT of FA money available for the Brewers.
Read the article. Brewer’s payroll is up not down.
It isn’t though. I’m not concerned about what the article says.
Any predictions? 2/20 mil split up in whatever fashion is favorable to Brewers?
No value in 2024 but his first year of FA would have been / should be at least a 20 mil gamble for a 1 year deal?
$20 MM plus if he hadn’t gotten hurt. But with missing 2024, there’s zero chance he would have gotten $20 MM a year beyond that. I will be surprised if the dollar amount is over $12 MM for the two years.
I’ll wait for the numbers before deciding whether this is good for the Brewers. Shoulder injuries aren’t slightly different from elbow injuries. They are much more risky.
This is true. But for now I’m just going to enjoy the feelgood glow of this news. Woody is very much loved and it was heartbreaking how his season and (so it seemed) his time with the Crew ended last year.
When healthy is every bit as good as Burnes. He has always been a fan favorite. Hope it works out.
Same surgery as Prior, Johan Santana and Rich Harden had and they never were the same pitchers(s)
Not wrong but wondering what 15-20 years of improvement / advancement in medicine and rehab might increase his odds a bit?
Possible, but even medicine has its limits. A shoulder is still a shoulder and wasn’t designed to throw a baseball. Maybe he adapts or develops a new pitching style. I guess we’ll find out.
Let’s get MLB Network saying something nice about the Brewers getting Woody in the fold.
Since we’re all speculating about stuff, I’ll join in the fun…
My guess is this was agreed to a while ago. MKE maybe wanted to wait a bit and see how his rehab was progressing, and of course being able to avoid using a 40 man spot on him. Also have to believe the $$ will tell us how confident they are about him coming back and being effective. I really doubt they’d spend the $$ if they didn’t expect a return, even if it’s minimal dollars.
I agree and If Ed O’Neil runs for potus as al bundy- he has my vote !
Don’t forget we are talking about a pitcher that is 33yrs old. Remembering when the Padres gave Prior a major league contract to go down to the minors and rehab, it did not go well 2 years nothing to show for it, just don’t see it as a wise move. He will be 35 if he has a shot at pitching again in the ML’s
I believe he just turned 31
Well he should perhaps be ready for the playoffs the Brewers won’t be making. I don’t get it
These type deals are always about year 2. See it more with guys who had Tommy John, but this is similar, as far as they likely don’t expect much, if anything, this year.
If he does make it back at some point this year, and they’re not a playoff team, he and the Crew find out if he can go for real in ’25 with no pressure.
If he comes back this year and is healthy in October that would be a big deal for a playoff team and a benefit worth paying for.
I don’t think the Brewers did this out of sentiment. Guessing they had inside knowledge about his rehab, his doctors’ assessment etc before taking a calculated risk.
Hes a free agent. Any positive or negative information would have been widely spread by his own agent.
Numbers not reported. But, as a rule the lowest revenue franchises shouldn’t be wasting their very limited resources on a player that won’t contribute to the roster for an entire year and maybe for 2 years. The Dodgers have money to light on fire, the cash strapped Brewers do not.
As Cheeseman said right above you, the Brewers probably know something we don’t. If they know he can’t pitch for 2 years I really doubt they do this. Or, if it’s dirt cheap it’s not like they’re skyrocketing into tax territory.
I love this move by the Brewers.
I don’t know when this all came together, but now I’m wondering if this signing is the reason the Sánchez deal has never been officially announced?
It’s my understanding he goes straight to the 60 day IL so a roster spot isn’t required. Maybe they have something else up their sleeve (like trading another starter cuz we have so many Aces already!)
I believe technically a roster spot is still needed. He’ll need to be put on the 40 man, then placed on the 60-day.
“A roster spot still needed”…From a procedural standpoint do they have to open a 40 man spot and then later transfer him to the 60 day IL; or can they just add him directly to the 60 day IL without releasing someone first?..
From my reading of the rules, only players on the 40 man major league roster are eligible to be placed on the 60 day IL.
Thanks. I’ve learned some rules from a lifetime of watching MLB, but I’ve never ever seen their actual rulebook.
I was going off what I read above..and perhaps I misunderstood too. That has happened once or twice.
I’ll admit I’m not 100% sure. I couldn’t find anything that specifically addressed this. But most of what I saw seemed to say a player has to be on the 40 man to be eligible for the 60-day IL.
2 year contract, 1 year 0 innings, 2nd year limited innings/pitch counts.
Not a good franchise strategy imo.
Spend $ on healthy arms who help now, not somewhat help in 2025.
Trade a healthy Burnes for financial reasons. Then sign an injured Woodruff who more than likely will miss most, if not all of the year. Geez, this is getting old year after year. Typical Brewer front office thinking. The bias in the Milwaukee organization is sickening.
And yet all they do is win.
And yet all they do is win.
===========================
The casual fans always seem to miss that little factoid.
Brewers had an A+ offseason in my book ! Absolutely crushed it and are in it to win ! Central favs by far and it doesn’t look like cubs are gonna sign enough big names to change that
Go back to hockey. What you wrote here is only barely true from even the surface.
Burnes was not traded for fiscal reasons.
J
Buenos was definitely traded, in part, due ti fiscal reasons
Eh, kinda. He’s not being signed long term for those fiscal reasons, so he’s being traded to gain possibly peak current value back.
Difference is that he’s barely guaranteed more than Burnes was for this deal. And now if they should trade him at next years deadline or offer him a qualifying offer after next season, they at least see something back for him instead of him signing elsewhere with them getting nothing out of it. I didn’t like the Burnes deal much myself, but complaining they traded him and resigned Woodruff, when the woodruff signing is a win for them, is kinda silly.
Burnes deal was an A in my book. They kept it out of the media all offseason. Then when the trade was made – they got 10 years of quality service time plus a first round pick (to make up for comp pick). And they got who they deem as their ss of the future. Great move !
Hall was a top prospect in all of baseball at one point. Let’s see what he does w a change of scenery in an environment designed for pitching success
Theres more to it than that. They are paying nearly the same amount as Burnes would have been, but over three years. We lose a player that was admittedly disgruntled and gain so much back. With Woody, we know him and can rehab him in-house, a player that loves to be here and is lights out if healed for 2025.
All that being said, I would have been fine keeping Burnes and giving it another shot, but we’ve tried the multiple top of the rotation pitcher route for all the years we had Burnes, Woody, and Peralta and that didnt work. Time to shift gears.
I would love to see the redsox trade for Peralta …
Yeah, I bet you would.
Wish the Braves would have done this. The upside is worth every penny
I’m glad that Woodruff is staying with the Brewers, but wouldn’t a longer contract have benefited both sides?
Woodruff will be 33 before his next contract starts, so he won’t be in a position to get a haul.
The Brewers might be paying for something of a rehab season in 2025 when he returns, and might get a better return in 2026-2028. It just feels like a 5-year contract would’ve worked better both ways.
His arm could fall off before 2025. Going long-term wouldnt make any sense for either the Brewers or Woody in terms of the risk involved.
There’s risk on the Brewers end of signing a longer term contract, because sometimes you never know how someone is going to come back after a surgery. They could still be phenomenal like Justin Verlander, they could be only fairly serviceable like Noah Syndengaard. It’s tough to put an accurate gamble on that.
But from Woodruff’s sides standpoint, a small contract like this also benefits him, even though this is definitely a discount because he likes the Brewers and is familiar with them. But the Brewers likely wouldn’t have done a longer term deal without there being a big discount throughout. With Woodruff being 31, if he takes like a 5-6 year deal on a discount but then pitches lights out on it, he’d be leaving tons of money on the table.
Brewers likely wouldn’t have done more than 16-18 million a year, if that, with him coming off injury. So if he signed that and then pitched to a high 2-mid 3 era throughout the contract, he’d be a 37 year old free agent, likely coming off his best years. And probably wouldn’t get a very long contract at max value. Would still get a good payday, but would’ve left a lot of money on the table. Longer term would’ve had risks for both sides.
Go Cubs Go!!
Only another 100 years to go for the next Cubs championship.
Woodruff has stated in the past he loves Milwaukee and wants to stay here. Happy to have him back.
The”mutual option” is so irrelevant and unnecessary.
1. It’s virtually (if ever) exercised because it will be deemed a bad deal by 1 side or the other.
2. If both sides want to stay together another year and are in agreement on the salary then they can just sign a 1 year deal in 2026.
Before anyone challenges 2, see 1.
You are right that mutual options are rarely, if ever, used. But I wonder if it helps keeps the ball rolling in negotiations. In this case if the option is not accepted, there is a 10 mil buyout. Its pretty much 15 mil for year 2s services. Maybe there is more leeway with how its paid out too. Bottomline, my guess it is keeps negotiations going and sets a baseline and might allow better flexibility.
If there is a buyout of it isn’t accepted on a mutual option.
Scenario 1- team doesn’t exercise and pays buyout.
Scenario 2 – player doesn’t exercise and gets paid buyout.
Scenario 3 – after the 2 above, they agree to a 1 year contract for which the buyout is factored in.
Scenario 4 – they don’t agree and player goes FA.
They can talk for 2 friggin years about what they are going to do.
It literally doesn’t gain any leverage to either side and I can’t recall (but surely there is an example) where it was exercised by both.
Even if it was – it’s the same contract they just could have sat down and said, hey, let’s stay together for 1 more year.
I just don’t see the point of its existence.
Like the appendix.
May never work out for the Brewers but he is one of the most popular players on the team.
This seems about right. It’s a bargain if it works out. It’s not too painful if it doesn’t work out.
Stearns, why didn’t you do this deal, for Pete’s sake