It was inevitable that Brandon Woodruff would land on the injured list after he had to leave Thursday’s start in the second inning with diminished velocity. His fastball was sitting at just 85 MPH after it had been averaging 92.5 MPH all season. Manager Pat Murphy was non-committal of an IL placement on Thursday after the game, but the writing was on the wall.
On Friday, the Brewers officially placed Woodruff on the 15 day IL with right shoulder inflammation. Reliever Easton McGee was recalled from Triple-A Nashville to take his roster spot.
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The Brewers rotation is already missing Quinn Priester as he is still rehabbing from his wrist injury that took him out of the entire spring. Now they’ll be missing Woodruff for the foreseeable future.
While Woodruff has not fully gotten back to the velocity he had prior to his 2023 shoulder injury, he was getting up to 96 MPH at times and was incredibly effective, pitching to a 3.60 ERA across 30 IP in his six starts this year. He had struck out 25 and walked just seven.
Woodruff told the media on Friday that there was nothing structurally wrong, he just needs to knock out the inflammation, and that he expects it to be close to a minimum stint on the IL.
Easton McGee has been up and down a couple of times already this season and he’ll help provide another bullpen arm for the Brewers. After Woodruff’s short start, the bullpen had to get worked a little more to cover the rest of the game, Shane Drohan had four heroic innings in relief, but that also means Drohan won’t be available for a couple of days.
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Woodruff’s next turn in the rotation is due up on Tuesday and it’s seemingly anyone’s guess as to who will get it. Drohan is a possibility since he covered the rest of that game on Thursday and is stretched out. There’s also Coleman Crow and Robert Gasser who both pitched in a doubleheader for Triple-A Nashville Thursday night and would be on regular rest. Then there’s Logan Henderson, who is currently slated to start on Sunday for Nashville and has a 1.02 ERA this season.
The Brewers do have the starting pitching depth to withstand the loss of Woodruff for the time being, but it’s still a big emotional loss for this team to not have their leader in the rotation. We saw how his return to the field impacted the team last year, with a 30-4 run starting once he came back. He’s highly respected and beloved in that clubhouse and it’s a tough blow to not have him out there every fifth day.
