Will Milwaukee Brewers’ Spending Freeze After Brandon Woodruff ACCEPTS $22M Qualifying Offer?

Will Milwaukee Brewers’ Spending Freeze After Brandon Woodruff ACCEPTS $22M Qualifying Offer?

Brandon Woodruff accepts the qualifying offer. He did what? This could go very, very well for the Milwaukee Brewers or it can go in the other direction. We’ll talk about that next here on Locked On Brewers. You are Locked On Brewers, your daily Milwaukee Brewers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. If all of us were a little shocked when Woodruff accepted the $22 million offer, the qualifying offer, this could go very, very well for the starting rotation. Also, I’ll tell you how this could be very, very bad if they want to sign somebody else to help an important need on this team. The upside is the starting rotation looks great going into the off season. We’ll explain all that coming up here in a little bit. Yes. sold when the news comes down that Brandon Woodruff accepts the qualifying offer. I think a lot of us were in the in the category of, well, the Brewers threw that qualifying out there, that offer out there, hoping Woody would not accept just as a formality so they could get a draft pick, assuming that Woodruff had uh, you know, explored the free agent market and there were feelers out there that he could get a multi-year deal, maybe a two-year, $50 million deal, threeear 75. I always thought that was kind of high for a guy coming off a shoulder injury. Uh, not only surgery a couple years ago, but he didn’t finish the season. He wasn’t there when they needed him most. And I’m not bashing Woody. That’s just the way it was. That’s just a matter of fact. So, when they gave him the qualifying offer and it was 22 million, I think we all took a deep breath and like, “Wow, 22 million.” Cuz the Brewers have never paid over 20 million for a pitcher. He’s not going to accept that for one year because he got the $10 million buyout on the contract, right, when the mutual option wasn’t agreed upon. And uh you know, they could talk all day about, well, that’s on last year’s books. Okay, that’s fine. So, they paid him wrote him a check for $10 million and now he accepts the $20 million offer and it’s like, wow. It’s kind of like sticker shock, right? because the Brewers we know can’t spend a lot of money. Uh they can’t spend a lot of money. So anytime the Brewers have to in any form in any fashion give away that type of money and for the Milwaukee Brewers that’s a lot of money. You always got to take a deep breath and like oh boy how’s this going to go? Now, I’m not for I love Woodruff. When healthy, $20 million is nothing for a guy like that. When healthy in today’s market, 20 million for a guy who’s a top of the rotation type pitcher. Yes. Now, I got big concerns about Woodruff going into the off season. And I know we want to say, well, Woodruff says he’s going to pitch next year. He says he’s going to be all healthy and fine. I mean, that’s what we’re basing this on. Now, we all love Woodruff. All right. Upstanding guy and all that, but what does the medical say on that? I mean, the guy finished the season and couldn’t pitch in the final three weeks of the season because of the shoulder. Now, we’re giving away $20 million to that guy. I always have problems giving money to injured players, especially a pitcher who really needs a shoulder to throw, right? And he’s 32 years old. I do remember a long time ago, boys and girls, the Brewers did this with a guy by the name of Teddy Haggera who needed Tommy John surgery. And the Brewers gave him like $3 million a year, which was a lot of money back then. A lot of money back in the early 90s. That was a lot of money. And the Brewers made a commitment to Freddy um to Teddy Haggera. And Teddy was considered one of the best left-handers in baseball, but he needed the it was the rotator cuff, not Tommy John. It was the rotator cuff. He needed rotator cuff surgery. And back then, rotator cuff surgery was kind of a a death sentence. When you had surgery on your shoulder, it’s like, man, what are the odds this guy’s going to come back? And the Brewers gave him that money and they ended up eating that money. And again, $3 million back then, that was a lot. You remember the Brewers didn’t want to give Paul Moler, one of one of the best hitters in baseball, one of the best hitters in baseball history, $3 million for only being a DH back in 1993. Right. Um, so today we’re forking over $20 million, $22 million to be exact, and change to a guy coming off a season where, yeah, he looked good. The VO was down. He had kind of reinvented himself on the mound and was doing a few other things out there to have success. Woody had major success right from his very first game. He pitched his very first game when he came back and he had success and the rest was history. Now again, when healthy, that’s good. The fact that he had to reinvent himself and the pop wasn’t there and the VA wasn’t there on the fast ball, a little concerning, but the fact that he was able to do a few other things and get a and get back to pitching being a dominant pitcher, that was impressive. Like I said, it’s not a matter of do I think Woodruff’s worth this kind of money when healthy. Absolutely. My concern, we’re giving away $20 million to a guy who you don’t know. You don’t know if he is going to be ready at opening day, right? I mean, going into training camp, spring training, what’s going to be a a question? Is Woodruff gonna be able to pitch? Is he gonna be on that opening day roster? How is he going to be in spring training? Remember, a year ago going in, that was the big question. Well, you know, he eventually worked himself up, had a few setbacks, and eventually came around and started pitching in July when we thought he was back in May, but he had a few setbacks along the way. Let’s throw that into the mix as well. but north of 20 million. So, as it turns out, we gave him a couple of years ago coming off shoulder surgery. Let’s take you back further. Woody’s a guy who we just he we we get rid of him and he always comes back. And I’m not saying that in a bad way, but two years ago when they non-tendered him right around this time of the year, we thought we were done with Woodruff, right? It was the Friday before Thanksgiving and it looked like to be a sad ending for Brad branded Woodruff and they were not tendering him and that was it. And Woodruff was not going to be a Milwaukee Brewer anymore. Then surprisingly out of nowhere he signs this 2-year $17 million deal with the team and it’s like okay. Paid him for a year of rehabbing for 2024. Rehabbed the entire year. paid him for that and then he came back about halfway through he got we got seven wins out of him big big games he pitched in seven wins would have liked to had him in the postseason but he certainly isn’t the reason why the Brewers lost to the Dodgers so the Brewers there was uh you know on the on the on the third year of that contract there had to be a mutual there had to be a mutual acceptance of that which there wasn’t. So they had to pay him a $10 million buyout. So that’s made that made up the the final 10 million of that 2year $17 million deal. So now as it turns out we’re paying him not only 2 years 17 million. This contract turns out to be 3 years and 30 million 37 million if you look at want to look at it that way. the 17 million he’s already got for two years and we got seven wins out of it, including one year where he didn’t even pitch. Now, this is going to turn out to be a three-year $37 million deal with the $20 million. So, 22 million. Actually, it’s going to be 3 years 39 million. Keep saying it’s 20 million, it’s 22 million and change. It’s going to be three years and 39 million for a guy coming off shoulder surgery who didn’t complete the season last year and we got seven wins wins in and couple of months worth of action out of him last year. I don’t know. The Brewers are a team as we know franchise can’t absorb losses like that. They need him to come in and perform. He’s got to come in and perform. And this is not on Woodruff. This is pressure on the organization. They did this and now they need Woodruff to perform. Or is Woody even going to be on the team next year? We get to that coming up next. Chuck Freeman here on Lockdown Brewers, part of Lockdown Podcast Network. We are your team every day. Good to have you along here on Lockdown Brewers. My name is Chuck Freeman, log time sports cer here in the state of Wisconsin. And uh thanks for joining us every day here on Lockdown Brewers. Um, and of course the news has been dropping as of late for the Milwaukee Brewers. We got the baseball winner meetings coming up here uh next month and I’m hoping some news drops out of that. We’ll be monitoring trades and all that coming up here in the next couple of weeks. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel’s uh number one sports book out there and right now Thanksgiving week that is a better paradise coming up, right? Because you have college basketball, all these tournaments going on, basketball it seems like 24 hours a day. You got college football going on, rivalry weekend coming up, the NFL of course, you name everything is going on and the NBA of course is back and FanDuel is the official sports betting partner of the NBA. So their live betting on FanDuel is really, really good. I’m tell I can tell you right now there are some companies out there their live betting absolutely is just brutal. Just brutal. 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And of course, our podcast, you get it on Google, Spotify, Apple, wherever you download your podcast. We’re the number one Brewers podcast on the internet because of you right Brewers fans out there. You Brewers fans, where were you when you found out the news at Woodruff? That that news spread quickly. I was getting texts left and right. I was driving on the road. I had to pull over. I had to pull over in North Fondelac, Wisconsin. North Fondelac. People messaged me, “Where are you on a road?” I I pulled off when I got the news about Woodruff when the alert started coming in and I had to do a a locked brewers as we say, you know, and locked on brewers. If you subscribe to us on YouTube, you’re going to get all the content. And that’s what I dropped yesterday on YouTube. A short little video. It’s still up there. A short video. That’s the benefit of becoming a subscriber on Locked on Brewers. Free subscriber in that. Um again, hit the subscribe button, hit the bell. That alert you every time we drop an episode on Locked on Brewers on YouTube. And of course, if you’re on YouTube, you can always listen to us and watch us or listen to us on the audio platforms, Google, Spotify, Apple, wherever you download your audio podcasts. We’re the number one brewers podcast on the internet because of you great brewer fans out there. So now what with the Milwaukee Brewers? What happens with Woodro? Well, I think when you spend $20 million, much like when they spent the money on Reese Hoskins two years, what 34 million couple of seasons ago, that was it for the spending. Not that we expected the Brewers go out there and be, you know, signing the Dylan Ceases of the world, right? Or Dant Dante Bashette. Bo Bashette. We had Dante at one time, Bobette. Um, you know, not that that was ever going to happen anyway, but more Antinasio, I would be stunned if he spent any more money in this off season. So, yeah, in one sense, when Woodruff came back, I was like, okay, um, solidifies the top of the rotation. We’re going to talk about that here in a little bit. But then it also precludes him. Mark Antinasio because he holds the purse strings in this team. Not Matt Arnold’s doing Mark Anonasio won’t be spending any more money at least to help this offense. What has been the major problem with this team offense when it gets to the postseason? every exit when if you look at every time they get beat in the playoffs this season comes to an end, it’s because they don’t score enough runs. Now, I thought that program was going to be corrected this past year. I thought, you know, they were at one point the number one team in baseball with runners in scoring position and doing things like that and moving runners over and then the Dodgers got here and uh the Brewers suddenly forgot to do all that stuff. So, the Brewers do need a big bad in the middle of that lineup. All right. They need They need a big bad. They need some production. They need production. Yeah, it was a nice little story and it didn’t work out in the postseason with um the way the Brewers were playing. Now, I love the way the Brewers were playing. That was fun, but I think they needed to add another bat in the middle of that lineup. And I’m wondering, and this bothers me a little bit, that with Woodruff picking up that option, uh, the qualifying offer, with saying yes to the qualifying offer, that the Brewers won’t go out and spend any money in this off season. Not they did, not that they did last year or take on any cash. That’s that’s bothersome. Do they look at it and they say, “Well, well, we spent their 20 million on Woodruff, 22 million. Oh, we can’t afford anybody else. And yeah, that solidifies the top half of the rotation for now. So, the Brewers game plan was probably I’m hunching right here that they banked on Woodruff not picking up the qualify an offer and becoming a a free agent and signing somewhere else. I have a gut feeling even though Naylor signed with Seattle the other day. I have a feeling this is going to be a soft market. I my gut feeling is there are not going to be a lot of because he’s not the only one. He’s not he’s not the only player in baseball who took the qualifying offer. There are other players around the most ever. This is something that normally does not happen. And I’m wondering if the agents for these guys put the feelers out, and they have, obviously they did, and realize, well, that money is not going to be there for my client. It’s not going to be there because of a potential lockout down the road. These players don’t want to tie up money, right? They don’t want to tie up money. Why would I tie up money and Brandon Woodruff? Why? especially a pitcher and her pitcher. So, I got a feeling there could not there may not be a lot of action on the free agent market and some of these guys might be settled in for smaller prices. I’m not saying there’s going to be collusion like there was several years ago when the owners were guilty and bonded together and said we’re not signing anybody. That happened a long time ago. I don’t think that’s happening again. But I feel like the owners are looking at and they’re saying, “Man, what? Why? We’re not going to spend this crazy money.” Now, obviously, there’s going to be owners out there who can’t help themselves, right? We know who those guys are. Mark Anonasio is not one of those guys, unfortunately. Well, fortunately and unfortunately. Um, so what so what’s the bigger picture here? Wardroof SCS, you got him on the on the upside. you got a number two starter or a number one if Freddy leaves the downside it cripples you if you wanted to sign another bat which you desperately need in this lineup or does he get traded I did read I believe in the journal Sentinel somebody mentioned about a trade could he be part of a trade package you got him for that 20 year 20 million 22 million could you set him off in a trade package. Interesting. Who’s willing to take that on? Who is going to be willing to take on Fred uh Brandon Woodruff at $22 million coming off shoulder surgery and a guy who didn’t finish the year last year? That would be my question. Hard to trade a guy, right, who couldn’t finish the season last year. I would say the same thing if the Brewers were interested in somebody. Why are we trading for a pitcher who couldn’t finish the year last year, 32 years old, and we’re gonna pay him what? $20 million. So, man, again, we’re we’re banking on Woodruff says he’s going to be fine for next year. I don’t know. I thought he was going to be fine and pitched in in May and he kept at having setbacks and then finally got around to pitching and then couldn’t finish the season. Just interesting about Woodruff picking up that qualifying offer. And I’m wondering if the Brewers were like, “Oh boy, now what? I didn’t expect that.” He did what? Well, Brewers might have taken a gamble here and lost and if it doesn’t work out and he’s not pitching and they don’t get him from start to finish this year, that is wasted money and they would have probably have wasted three years and 39 million. And I’m looking at worst possible scenario here. Hope that’s not the case. But they need Freddy to produce. They need Woodruff to produce. And all obviously they need some offense. So where does the rotation stand now? Rotation looks pretty good, right? If it stays intact. We’ll get to that coming up next here on Lockdown Brewers. Locked on Brewers, part of Lockdown Podcast Network. We are your team every day. By the way, Locked On, the Locked On Network, now the number one sports podcast network out there. The number one, we’re already the number one. Brewers podcast, the whole network is the number one sports podcasting network out there. And this goes for NBA, NHL, college football, every team is represented like the Milwaukee Brewers. Number one sports podcast network out there. And that is really cool to be a part of that. You always want to be a part of something number one. and it’s great to be a part of the lockdown network. Speaking of number one, Freddy Peralta is the number one starter going into the off season. Here’s how I got that rotation as of right now. And it looks darn good on the upside of everything working out with Woodruff. Peralta, Woodruff, Prister, and Miserowski is my top four. That is my top four. Peralta, Woodruff, Prester, and Miserowski. Now, who’s going to be in that fifth spot? Logan Henderson. Okay, I assume again another guy who had a late late season injury there. We like to think only a couple of starts. Gasser again, he’s coming off Tommy John. We saw him at the end of the year. What is Robert Gasser? Okay, how’s he going to be? Is he going to I’m sure he’s going to compete for one of those spots. How good is he going to be? We don’t know. DL Hall can’t stay healthy. Patrick want him for the bullpen. How about the forgotten man, Tobias Meyers, right? Pitcher of the year two seasons ago. How does Tobias Myers fit into all this? Brewers have a lot of names that could fit into this rotation, but Peralta, Woodruff, Pster, and Miz are my top four. Ashby could factor in. I think he’s got to get a shot at the rotation. Dio Hall would love him there. I like him when he pitches. Again, can’t make the club if you’re in the tub, as they say. And he’s always in the tub, meaning always hurt. But I think competing for that fifth spot as of right now, Gasser Henderson and Ashby with Patrick in the bullpen and throw Tobias Myers into that mix as well. Rotation looks great. I love the bullpen, but the bottom line is, can they score any runs? Can they get it done in the postseason? Right. the Woodpeckers, as they were called during the regular season. Didn’t call them that in the in the postseason because that dried up in one week’s worth of games against the Dodgers. Yep. And on one hand, excited to have Brandon Woodruff back. On the other hand, this could be very, very bad in the off season. I hate to paint that gloomy picture, but we know, right? I can’t sugarcoat that. 22 million for a guy coming off shoulder surgery. Now, if he comes out and gives them 15 wins and a ton of quality starts, not exact, not necessarily the win total, but quality starts, right? As we know, the win total doesn’t mean a hill of beans if you don’t go out there and pitch quality starts. You can go out there and win 15 games, but have an erra of six and your offense is supporting you every day. The the point the point is can he go out there and give him quality starts and be the type of pitcher he can when he’s healthy. Top of the rotation allstar ace caliber pitcher. We all agree when healthy ace caliber pitcher. Okay. Now can he keep it going at that ace level? We saw six or seven or eight weeks of it this past year. in a different form that VO like I said was not there reinvented himself and he still was great. Can he carry that over to the season and most importantly stay healthy? That is the big question. But the rotation right now assuming they don’t trade Freddy which you know the indications are they’re going to keep him who knows. Mark Anthanasio did say he did say that this move of offering the 22 million a qualifying offer is independent from the Peralta. In other words, they didn’t do this thinking that they’re going to trade Peralta in the offseason. Atonacasio says two independent decisions right there. This is not based on us trying to trade Peralta. Has nothing to do with it. He says again what he tells us and what the true story is. He’s not going to tell us the keys to the kingdom as we always say. But that’s going to do it for me. Thanks for listening and watching Lockdown Brewers part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network out there. We’ll see you tomorrow everybody. And uh thanks for tuning in and follow me on Twitter as well. You ever have any questions, hit me up on Twitter, Chuck Freeman, Fru N. Hit me up on Twitter, hit me on X. You want to drop me a DM, I’ll always get back to you. May not be right away, but I will always get back to you. Feel free to always message me here or on Facebook as well. See you tomorrow everybody around locked on brewers.

Milwaukee Brewers face a pivotal offseason after Brandon Woodruff accepts a $22 million qualifying offer. Will the gamble pay off, or will Woodruff’s shoulder injury haunt the rotation? Chuck Freimund examines the high-stakes decision, weighing the upside of a star pitcher returning against the risk of a major budget crunch for a small-market franchise.

Key topics include the projected rotation with Freddie Peralta, Quinn Priester, and Jacob Misiorowski, the lingering offensive woes that threaten postseason success, and potential trade scenarios if Woodruff isn’t fully healthy. With ownership unlikely to spend further, can the Brewers score enough runs and compete for a division crown? Chuck Freimund unpacks Mark Attanasio’s strategy, historical precedents, and the implications for Milwaukee’s path to October.

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