Unless you are all about sentimentality, the move makes perfect sense. Brandon Woodruff might not be available to start Opening Day for the Milwaukee Brewers, as the right-hander takes his time ramping up this spring following a strained right lat that prematurely brought his feel-good comeback story to an end with less than two weeks to go in the 2025 season.
His goal is to be healthy at the end of the 2026 season and be there for any postseason games the Crew may play. That didn’t happen in 2023, when a shoulder injury that would require surgery, took him out on the eve of that year’s postseason and sidelined him for the entire 2024 season. Then, it happened again in 2025.
With 2026 perhaps being Woodruff’s final season wearing a Brewers uniform, the 33-year-old would rather throw a pitch in the last game of the season than the first. Still, if Woodruff doesn’t begin the season as the Opening Day starter March 26 against the Chicago White Sox, how do the Brewers replace the most veteran pitcher on the staff?
His return to the team, after accepting the $22.025-million qualifying offer instead of finding a new home in free agency, was one reason why the Crew were willing to deal Freddy Peralta this winter. Peralta is now with the New York Mets. Woodruff was also the ideal pitcher to lead the staff post-Peralta, providing leadership and production. In 12 starts in his comeback, Woodruff had a 3.17 FIP, walking 5.4% of the batters he faced, while striking out 32.3%. Both marks are the best of his eight-year career. He struck out eight or more batters seven times, including a 10-strikeout performance in his second start.
The good news is that the Brewers are in a good position to absorb a short-term loss of Woodruff, but much depends on how the team plans to reintegrate him into the rotation.
“What that looks like early on, it could look a little bit different,” Woodruff said Monday. “Nothing’s set in concrete, though.”
One possible scenario would be to handle Woodruff similarly to how the Los Angeles Dodgers brought along Shohei Ohtani last year, following his elbow surgery. As a two-way player, Ohtani didn’t have the ability to go out on a rehab assignment without missing the chance to impact games as a designated hitter. Ohtani returned to pitching in mid-June and increased his workload gradually, such that the kid gloves were off by the time the postseason rolled around. He also had more time off between starts. Woodruff made two fewer starts in the regular season than Ohtani, but logged 17⅔ more innings. Of course, Ohtani’s situation was made more palatable due to his two-way status, allowing Los Angeles to carry an extra pitcher. The Brewers do not have that luxury with Woodruff.
Right-handers Quinn Priester and Jacob Misiorowski are the only other locks at the moment to be in the Crew’s Opening Day rotation, with one of those two taking the ball that day instead of Woodruff. That turns what had been a battle royale for two rotation slots into one for three.
For those in the competition, it doesn’t really change much. None of the candidates wants to start the season at Triple-A Nashville, although more will than won’t. As a quick refresher, those in contention include Chad Patrick, Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser, Kyle Harrison, Brandon Sproat, Shane Drohan and Carlos Rodriguez. DL Hall and Ángel Zerpa, more likely to be in the bullpen, could be early-season solutions as well.
Henderson is coming back from his own injury, a strained flexor that ended his season in August. But the right-hander started one of the Crew’s split-squad exhibition games Sunday. Otherwise, everyone seems healthy at this point.
Patrick is the next-closest thing to a lock, due to his performance in 2025. He was in the rotation for 23 of his 27 appearances and posted a 3.53 FIP, with an identical ERA. He was also electric out of the bullpen down the stretch and in the postseason, which will b an alternative for him this year if he doesn’t make the rotation.
After that, Henderson, Gasser and Harrison are in the next tier. Henderson made his first five MLB starts before being hurt, while Gasser came back from Tommy John surgery to make two quick-hook starts and was on the postseason roster. Harrison, a left-hander, has the most experience of the group, with 37 starts in his 42 MLB appearances. He came to the Crew in the Caleb Durbin trade, after going to the Boston Red Sox in the Rafael Devers deal with the San Francisco Giants.
Prospects yet to prove themselves at the highest level are in the next group. That begins with Sproat and includes Drohan and Rodriguez. Sproat was one of the two players the Brewers received in the Peralta trade and got a brief taste of the majors at the end of 2025, with mixed results. Drohan—another lefty picked up in the Durbin deal—has battled injuries but has seen time at Triple-A each of the last three seasons. Rodriguez is homegrown, having been a sixth-round draft pick in 2021, but has struggled in his seven MLB appearances.
Would it be surprising to see the Crew go out and sign a veteran to fill in for Woodruff? It depends on the plan the Brewers’ medical staff has laid out for their incumbent ace. With a relatively raw group of pitchers who will be part of the team’s future one way or the other, it would be a bit surprising. Most of these pitchers are ready to prove themselves in the majors. The starting group after Woodruff is nine deep, and that ignores Hall and Zerpa.
While the Brewers might not have Woodruff for one final Opening Day, the team could make the strategy pay off by winning a fourth straight NL Central title and giving the ball to the big right-hander in the postseason.