2:30pm: Woodruff spoke to members of the media, including Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, shortly after being placed on the IL. He said there are no structural concerns and it should be a pretty minimal IL stint.
2:05pm: The Brewers announced that right-hander Brandon Woodruff has been placed on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation. Fellow righty Easton McGee has been recalled in a corresponding move.
The IL placement is unsurprising but ominous. Woodruff has been battling shoulder problems for years. He was limited to 11 starts in 2023 and eventually required surgery, which wiped out his entire 2024 season. He got back on the mound in the summer of 2025 and made 12 starts but then finished the season on the IL due to a lat strain.
The Brewers felt confident enough in Woodruff’s health to issue him a $22.025MM qualifying offer for 2026, a deal he accepted. He got healthy enough this spring to break camp with the club. However, alarm bells started ringing when he made his start yesterday, as his velocity was down about 7 mph. He had been averaging about 92 miles per hour in his previous starts but couldn’t really get past 85 mph yesterday.
Milwaukee removed him from the game but the details were a bit murky. Manager Pat Murphy said that Woodruff wasn’t experiencing any pain, but merely felt his arm was a bit dead. The Brewers weren’t sure if an IL stint would be necessary or if maybe they would simply try pushing his next start by a few days. He did go for an MRI and it seems there was enough concern to put him on the shelf for at least a couple of weeks.
Further details may be revealed later today but all the pieces add up to a worrisome situation. Woodruff hasn’t been fully healthy for an extended stretch of time since 2022 and it seems he can’t fully shake the shoulder problems.
For now, McGee gives them an extra bullpen arm. In a few days, they will need to figure out how to fill Woodruff’s spot in the rotation. Jacob Misiorowski is taking the ball today and should be followed by Kyle Harrison, Chad Patrick and Brandon Sproat in the subsequent games. By Tuesday at the latest, they’ll need either a bullpen game or another starter in the mix. If Woodruff is going to be out for a while, they will need to think about long-term solutions.
Shane Drohan, DL Hall and Jake Woodford have been throwing multi-inning stints out of the bullpen. Perhaps someone in that group could make a spot start or act as the bulk guy in a bullpen game, or maybe even a combo of those guys could cover a game. The Brewers also have options in the minors. Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser, Coleman Crow and Carlos Rodriguez are all on optional assignment in Triple-A right now, so someone in that group could be recalled.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Wow.
Don’t know why they waste their time with Mcgee when you got Gasser, Crow, Henderson, Holub, Childress, Yoho, Stalling all better then him . He isn’t even as good as Birch. Smith.
McGee is on the 40 man and they don’t need a starter until Tuesday. They recall a starter on Tuesday, send him down for a reliever and rinse/repeat. Limits service time and keeps bullpen fresh.
Might want to read the article. McGee is clearly a free RP for a few days.