Right-hander Brandon Woodruff is easily the most experienced arm in Milwaukee’s rotation mix after the Freddy Peralta trade but health has been an ongoing issue in recent years. He appears to be a bit behind schedule in camp this year after finishing 2025 on the injured list due to a lat strain. He spoke to reporters, including Adam McCalvy of MLB.com, about his ramp-up and wouldn’t commit to being ready by Opening Day.
“I think it’s too early to say right now,” Woodruff said, when asked about the chances of him being ready by the start of the season. “It’s up in the air right now. I know that term’s used a lot but, like I said, there’s one goal I have this year and that’s to be healthy… I want to be available at the end of the year when it matters most. What that looks like early on could be a little bit different. There’s nothing set in concrete. All I know is I threw 25 pitches today live. I feel good. I feel good after, sitting here talking to you guys. That’s a great sign, so I’ll just continue to build off that and progress.”
Woodruff was a mainstay of the club’s rotation for most of the 2019 to 2022 seasons but has been less reliable recently. Shoulder issues limited him to 11 starts in 2023 and ultimately required surgery, which wiped out his 2024 season. He was activated off the IL in July and made 12 starts. His velocity was a couple of ticks below his pre-surgery form but the results were still good. He allowed 3.20 earned runs per nine with a 32.3% strikeout rate and 5.4% walk rate. He hit the IL with a lat strain in September and missed the postseason.
Given the tumultuous nature of his past few years, it makes sense that he and the Brewers would be cautious and focused on the long season ahead as opposed to forcing the issue in late March. If Woodruff misses a few starts to begin the campaign, they have a lot of depth they can use in the interim.
Jacob Misiorowski and Quinn Priester probably have two spots locked up. Chad Patrick and Logan Henderson are strong candidates for two more. DL Hall, Aaron Ashby, Brandon Sproat, Robert Gasser, Ángel Zerpa, Kyle Harrison, Shane Drohan, Coleman Crow and Carlos Rodríguez are all on the roster. Some of those guys will end up in relief but they’re all optionable and could be in the majors or in the Triple-A rotation or they could be shuttled between the two throughout the year.
That huge pack of rotation options means that a non-roster arm like Gerson Garabito was going to be hard-pressed to earn a roster spot. That won’t even be his focus now, as he’ll have to prioritized his health for a while. Manager Pat Murphy recently told reporters, including Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, that Garabito had surgery to address a broken bone in his foot and will be out for four months.
It’s a tough break for the righty, who is looking to make a return to affiliated ball. He signed with the Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization in June and posted a 2.64 ERA in 15 starts for that club. He parlayed that showing into a minor league deal with the Brewers. He’ll have to recover from his surgery before he can push for a roster spot. His major league career consists of 21 appearances with the Rangers with a 5.77 ERA.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
A lot of good pitching depth
Depth but questions. Giolito on a one year deal might be a good investment if they have the payroll space.
Corbin if they don’t.
They legit dont have room for Giolito unless they want Brandon Sproat stuck in AA. While its true young guys are a gamble, so are veterans, and they have enough promising pitchers that only half of them have to live up to their potential and stay healthy for this season.
In my mind both Chad Patrick and Logan Henderson were better than Quintana last year, but both had to spend large parts of the year in Nashville due to Quintana, and they have even more guys this year
With all that young talent they don’t need a broken down Giolito.
Exactly. This will be a season of sifting through pitching talent, and next season (whenever that is) will be one of sifting through position player talent. The Brewers are in transition while trying to maintain their hold on the NL Central. As soon as Jackson Chourio becomes the slugger he is pegged to be, the team will respond with more hard-fast positional calls.
any team can just list random unknown names….don’t mean s@!t
Known names to all but the most casual fans. Lot of top and former top prospects. Lot of guys part of big trades.
@LBc Unknown to people like you who don’t know much baseball.
I hope for the best but I bet we only see a half seasons work from Woody this year.
As long as that includes the post-season finally, I’ll be happy.
Chris Bosiowned
Bring back Wade Miley!
If the pitching depth gets tested in Spring Training, Zack Littell wouldn’t break the bank.
Would love to see Robert Gasser get an extended go as their 5th starter.
If they had the opportunity to do it all over again, I wonder if they’d still extend the QO to Woodruff? I have a feeling they wouldn’t.
Why not? Mediocre starters get around $15-20 million these days, so Woodruff is easily worth the QO.
Because the Brewers can get good innings out of guys on rookie deals or cheap contracts. He’s far from a bona fide ace like he’s paid as because of the extensive injuries.
Yeah, if he was never a Brewer, I dont think they offer him that on a 1 year FA deal, but given his history here, and how much everyone likes him, I bet they are happy to have him even if its more $ per WAR than they’d like all else being equal.
Aces start at 30m. Getting more like 40m.
Whats a better way to have spent 20 mil and still had the productive offseason they had? The risk was/is worth taking when you see what higher tier pitching costs.
Suarez??
FanGraphs DC projections
PLAYER FIP
Woodruff 3.77
Crow 3.95
Misiorowski 4.03
Henderson 4.15
Priester 4.16
Gasser 4.22
Sproat 4.26
Harrison 4.28
Patrick 4.46
Rodriguez 4.52
Hall 4.14 (RP)
Ashby 3.72 (RP)
Zerpa 3.61 (RP)
That’s a pretty deep rotation
How many innings are they saying for Crow with that FIP?
cwizzy
“How many innings are they saying for Crow with that FIP?”
Mostly irrelevant
Projections are a model of true talent. That talent is largely the same for one-third of an inning or 100 innings*
*Yes. Of course true talent can decrease if a player is overworked.
I’m mostly curious how many innings FanGraphs projects for Crow this year. I dont think he will be on the team until after the ASB, so it seems strange to have him so prominently displayed.
If we were that concerned about FG projections, we’d look it up ourselves. Jazz seems to think its gospel. I wonder if he has any of his own insight.
FG projections will prove more accurate than any of you guys with your eye tests and “insight” ever could. I like seeing them posted here. Beats looking them up myself right now.
HH
“FG projections will prove more accurate than any of you guys with your eye tests and “insight” ever could.”
Yeah. I luv to disregard useful information to show off my insight.
I also listen to YouTube and ignore my doctor.
stymee
“Jazz seems to think its gospel”
How so?
“we’d look it up ourselves”
“I like seeing them posted here.”
Turns out stymee’s arrogance was misplaced. And his attempt to speak on behalf of everyone at MLBTR was stymied.
Horrible attitude thinking the end of the season matters more. The end of the season won’t matter if he tries to coast through anyway. Sounds very Rodon-ish