It wasn't supposed to be this long for Brandon Woodruff. When the right-hander had surgery on his right shoulder to repair the anterior capsule back in October of 2023, the expectation was that he would miss the entire 2024 season and be ready to pitch at the start of 2025. Yet, the calendar has flipped to July, and the 32-year-old just now looks set to return to an MLB mound.
"I know we talked about this in spring training, to not necessarily judge myself on the first half," Woodruff discussed with a group of reporters in front of his locker at Citi Field on Tuesday. "Here we are, getting close to the second half, and I've yet to throw a baseball in a major league game."
Woodruff's shoulder issues first cropped up back in April of 2023 when he landed on the injured list after making just two starts. He wound up missing four months before returning to the Brewers' rotation in August. Then, in his ninth start, in Miami against the Marlins, he felt discomfort in his shoulder again. He would wind up undergoing surgery a few weeks later after being ruled out for the postseason.
While Woodruff's offseason rehab ostensibly went smoothly, his in-season return to the mound has been anything but.
He pitched for most of spring training and began a rehab assignment on April 12th, which seemed to put him in line for a return at some point in May. However, he suffered an ankle injury on May 11th and was forced to begin a new rehab assignment for his new injury. Then, on June 4th, in what should have been his final rehab start, Woodruff was struck on the elbow by a line drive in the second inning and had to leave the game. He would miss the next three-plus weeks before returning to Triple-A Nashville for what wound up being his final rehab start on June 29th.
It's been a long road to get to this point, but Woodruff seems to be looking at the situation through a positive lens, acknowledging simply that "circumstances have led me to this point...Looking at it now," he explained, "I would have gotten to Cleveland, I would have had that [ankle injury] pop up there, and then I would have went back. I would have never been able to do it."
The line drive off the elbow may have been another story, but Woodruff believes the delayed return may have been for the best. It also creates a storybook moment where Woodruff can return to an MLB mound after 652 days in the same place where he last stepped on one.
"When I went down with the elbow and got hit, and we started mapping out the days, I started looking [at the schedule]," he smiled. "Just the chances of that happening. Last time I pitched a major league game was on that mound, and that's kind of when stuff started going south for me. It's weird how this game works, and how full circle that comes around."
That's the kind of baseball magic that gets noticed by a man who's made 130 appearances in big league games but doesn't quite surprise him. The nine-year MLB veteran has seen a lot during his time in Milwaukee. The Brewers made the playoffs in four of the first five seasons that Woodruff was with the big league club and came one game away from the World Series in 2018. They failed to win a playoff game the next two years, didn't make the playoffs at all in 2022, and then failed to win a playoff game in 2023 with Woodruff on the sideline. His rotation-mate, Corbin Burnes, was traded away after that 2023 season, and his manager, Craig Counsell, fled for the division rival Cubs.
Through it all, Woodruff has been a rock in that Brewers' rotation. He has a career 3.10 ERA in 680.1 innings in Milwaukee and hasn't posted an ERA over 3.05 or a WHIP higher than 1.07 since 2019. His strikeout rate hasn't fallen below 29% since 2018, and he has a career batting average against of .212. For all intents and purposes, Brandon Woodruff is an ace. But will he be one when he returns?
"Honestly, I had a plan going in the whole time with the minor league rehabs of not getting too caught up in results," he admitted. "This is a results-oriented business, and I'm the first one who wants to go out and compete and do well, just like anybody else in this room, but I knew that this was going to be a tough process in terms of, like, I can't look at that. I have to get myself healthy. You know, the best advice I got was from Dr. [Keith] Meister [who performed Woodruff's surgery] before we left spring training. He said, 'This year, for you, is not about results; it's about getting healthy.' And I think that was the biggest thing that stuck with me."
In truth, the results for Woodruff haven't been that bad. Over his seven starts in Triple-A this season, Woodruff has a 3.55 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, and 23/8 K/BB ratio in 25.1 innings. They're not the impressive numbers that we've seen from him during his MLB career, but they're results that Woodruff himself has been happy with.
"Up until this point, I didn't know how these rehabs were going to go," he said. They went extremely well, to be honest, so I was happy about that. I think it's just the knowledge of how to pitch, and just going down and trying to get my work in and focus on that side of it. I think it was a good balance."
He certainly got his work in, throwing more innings in the minor leagues this season than anybody expected. But that extra time may have helped him shake some of the additional rust. His final few starts have been some of his better ones, and he hit 95.4 mph on the radar gun with his four-seam fastball in his last outing, which is right in line with the velocity he showed before the injury. Now, hitting that velocity and sitting there are two different things, but it's nice to see that there is still some juice in that surgically repaired arm.
"I feel like consistency of the stuff is where I want to be," confirmed Woodruff. "Actually, [my last start], my stuff felt pretty good. I don't get too hung up on the metrics of stuff, but I do like to pay attention just to make sure my stuff's not getting out of whack, and everything seemed to be pretty consistent, so I was happy about that."
But even with that satisfaction, Woodruff is keeping realistic expectations for himself. His fastball won't have the velocity it used to, at least not right away. His changeup has been struggling to generate whiffs in his rehab starts, and his sinker isn't showing the same velocity or movement. However, perhaps he can emerge from this as a new version of himself.
Woodruff has seemingly split his slider into two pitches now. In 2023, he was throwing an 87 mph slider with 3.2 inches of horizontal break. In his last rehab outing, he showed off a 90.2 mph slider with three inches of horizontal break but also an 82 mph sweeper with 12 inches of break. The sweeper was only thrown three times, all to righties, and didn't generate a single whiff, but it's a new evolution that shows the 32-year-old is thinking differently about how to attack MLB hitters.
"It's just getting back into a routine and hopefully just continuing to stay healthy," he said. "I know if I can do that, I will figure out how to get guys out at a high level again. It's just a matter of consistency, and that's it... I don't know when it's going to click. I always say this every year, when it does, it does, and I don't know when that's going to happen. As far as physically, I feel good. And then it just comes down to execution, execute, mix it up, and just be a pitcher. That's what it comes down to."
The truth is that it might not "click" for Woodruff this season. We've seen many talented pitchers, like Sandy Alcantara, Spencer Strider, and Eury Perez, struggle with consistency in their first year back after major surgery. Woodruff is the oldest of the group, so he's unlikely to be immune to the inconsistencies and poor starts. For those in fantasy leagues, Woodruff is unlikely to be somebody that can be relied on week in and week out. His strikeout rate figures to be down, and his pitches won't be as crisp as they used to be. That could lead to more hard contact and some tough innings that he used to be able to avoid. The Brewers also have a full rotation of healthy starters who are performing well, so they may be cautious with how often they use the 32-year-old after his two years away. He's certainly worthy of being rostered in fantasy leagues, but might be best suited on benches until we can see how he looks on the mound again.
However, just being on that mound is all that matters in the bigger picture.
"Just knowing that I'm going to pitch again in the major leagues is exciting. You know, it's been a long time," Woodruff chuckled. "Honestly, I don't know how I'm going to feel... I'll be excited to go pitch, but I don't know the emotions. I'll just be excited just to go out and pitch in a Major League Baseball game again, and whatever happens, happens, and then just go from there."
Going from there could set up another start a week from Sunday at home against the Nationals. That's the one that Woodruff has mentally circled on the calendar.
"I'll probably be a mess on the first one back at home," he admitted. "This is the only organization I've been a part of now for 10-11 years. These fans know me the best, and I just want to go pitch well in front of them, but I want to get that out of the way and then get back to the business of just competing and pitching again."
All the veteran has to do now to make that a reality is simply make it to Sunday.
"It's almost strange. I just want this to still go day-by-day, even though I'm not pitching until the next [series]... I don't want something to happen. I'm like, crossing my fingers, the whole thing."
If he needs to insulate himself inside a plastic bubble, Brandon Woodruff is going to make sure he steps on that mound on Sunday. And when it does, it would be an incredibly special return.
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