Brandon Woodruff's Status As Brewers' Opening Day Starter Unknown

[Steve Drumwright]

Right-hander Brandon Woodruff, already a two-time Opening Day starter for the Milwaukee Brewers, was the logical choice to do the same for the 2026 season as the most accomplished pitcher on the staff.

But he and the Crew's medical staff are taking it cautiously with Big Woo following a strained right lat that sidelined him for most of the final two weeks of the regular season and all of the postseason. Woodruff threw a 33-pitch simulated game Monday, his first time facing live hitters since his final start of 2025 on Sept. 17.

That puts the 33-year-old, who accepted the $22.025 million qualifying offer to return to the Brewers, behind the other rotation candidates in camp and also makes his starting Opening Day on March 26 vs. the Chicago White Sox at American Family Field questionable.

“It’s up in the air right now,” Woodruff told Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. “I know that term’s used a lot. There’s one goal I have this year, and that’s to be healthy. I want to be available at the end of the year when it matters most. What that looks like early on, it could look a little bit different. Nothing’s set in concrete, though."

Woodruff returned from October 2023 shoulder surgery and a couple of minor setbacks while rehabbing to make his 2025 debut on July 6. All he did in 12 starts was rekindle the thoughts of Woodruff pre-shoulder surgery as he turned in a 3.17 FIP and 130 ERA+. His control, previously terrific, was the best of his career, walking just 5.4% of hitters. He also struck out 32.3% of batters, also the best of his eight-year career.

If Woodruff is unable to go, that would leave right-hander Quinn Priester and Jacob Misiorowski as the leading contenders to start Opening Day. Neither was in the majors last season on Opening Day.

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[brewcrewdue80]

Nothing wrong with this.  Definitely want Woody around for postseason.  Also the team has like 8 capable starters right. Take advantage of that before it dwindled to 5. Priester is very deserving to get OD where you can promote the long stretch of wins Brewers had when started. 

[Klantz27]

Bro knows his shoulder is cooked and he cant make it a full year 😂 22 million what a joke where up to 40 million burnt in the last 3 years for a dude to rehab instead of pitch laughable 

[jay87shot]

This is definitely worrisome because he has had the entire offseason to get right. That being said it isn't a big deal if he takes his time to ramp up and get up to speed, we have enough depth. However for us to truly be a contender we really need him to be a frontline starter who can go toe to toe with Yamamoto, Ohtani, Snell, and Glasnow. If he is already behind the eight ball staying healthy all year is going to be tough.

[SF70]

40 minutes ago, jay87shot said:

This is definitely worrisome because he has had the entire offseason to get right. That being said it isn't a big deal if he takes his time to ramp up and get up to speed, we have enough depth. However for us to truly be a contender we really need him to be a frontline starter who can go toe to toe with Yamamoto, Ohtani, Snell, and Glasnow. If he is already behind the eight ball staying healthy all year is going to be tough.

Disagree that it’s worrisome. 
 

He said he’s completely healthy which is all that matters. He had to recover from the lat strain, which is now past him. Slow ramp-up should be expected. They will likely limit his innings this year anyhow and fortunately the team has enough starters for this not to be an issue.

Game 1 playoff starter Woody is the priority.

[Underachiever]

1 minute ago, SF70 said:

Disagree that it’s worrisome. 
 

He said he’s completely healthy which is all that matters. He had to recover from the lat strain, which is now past him. Slow ramp-up should be expected. They will likely limit his innings this year anyhow and fortunately the team has enough starters for this not to be an issue.

Game 1 playoff starter Woody is the priority.

You are much more of an optimist than I am. A player who hasn't finished a season healthy since what, 2022? is telling us a slow ramp up to the season is no big deal. I agree that it's good to be cautious because the Brewers need him healthy, and I think the Brewers have to consider load management so that they have some pitching left in the playoffs.

However, this team suffers injuries that seem to be no big deal that end up lasting weeks and even months. Chourio's hamstring "tickle" cost him a month, DL Hall's two to three weeks for a lat strain ended up being months, Bukauskas missed the whole year. There are other examples of injuries that are characterized as minor that end up being more than that.

[OldHeidelberg]

We just have to hope it is load management, it doesn't sound like a setback. But it's not good considering the same type of report happened last spring and it was July before he pitched for Brewers.

[homer]

I'm very interested to see if his velocity comes back this spring.

[TURBO]

At this point, any quality innings we get from Woodruff will be a luxury.

I think we need to be prepared for the good chance we don't see Woodruff as our ace, a guy who eats innings and puts up the number we were once used to.

Counting on him to be our playoff savior is probably just setting us up for disappointment.

Best of luck to him, and I'll be pulling for him all the way, but...

[TURBO]

1 hour ago, jay87shot said:

...we really need him to be a frontline starter who can go toe to toe with Yamamoto, Ohtani, Snell, and Glasnow. 

Woodruff is ONE guy, we need a lot more than a healthy Woody to go toe to toe with that rotation I'm afraid...

[TURBO]

1 hour ago, SF70 said:

Disagree that it’s worrisome. 
 

 

Dude...

[homer]

The headline of the article says "Woodruff feeling healthy". It goes on to say:

Quote

Woodruff is right on the schedule he set with the team’s medical staff at the end of last year and said he feels strong, but he conceded that he’s behind some of the other pitchers in camp.

He hasn't experienced a setback of any kind. All they are saying is he may not start the game on March 26th. 

[SoCalBrewfan]

Worry, don't worry, get mad, whatever. You can't change it. We will all just have to wait and see.

The question is whether the Brewers have contingency plans. Our list of possible starters goes deep, but there's not a lot of proven major leaguers yet. Getting to ~800 starting pitcher innings (2025 total, approximately 5 * 162) is a figure of merit, and the Brewers have subtracted two guys (Peralta and Quintana) who combined for 300. 

Even the guys listed as certainties after Woodruff, namely Miz, Priester and maybe Patrick, have promise but none have long track records of success. Those three guys seem like the best positioned to combine innings and effectiveness; 500 quality innings from the three would already put the '26 team ahead of a lot of recent Brewers squads. Pitching is just uncertain though, and I'd plan for one or more of those guys to have some regression.

We've kind of been here before, though. Remember 2019 or so, when Woodruff, Burnes, Peralta were largely unproven with some bullpen success, but they were going to be counted on going forward? Along with guys like Davies and Houser and a bunch of vets that I didn't even remember: Chacin? Chase Anderson? The lesson is that they have a plan, but are prepared to piece things together even if things don't immediately go according to plan. They recovered from Burnes' calamity of a 2019 season and Freddy's growing pains. 

Surely they knew that setbacks would be possible for Woodruff. The tell will be when (or if) they add a veteran. 

[wallus]

Pitching depth is important. I would assume another starter will get hurt in Spring Training, it seems to happen every year 

[kestrel79]

As long as he's healthy going into the playoffs, I don't care how many starts he has during the regular season. 

[Jopal78]

Does it really matter if he pitches the first game of the year, or the 5th game of the year six days later. Until he’s not healthy it’s a non-story. 

[owbc]

Put me in the "don't care" camp. He's getting paid to win games in October and anything before that is a bonus. 

[Brewcrew82]

I don't see why there's reason to be any more worried as long as he hasn't had any type of setback since September, which by every indication he hasn't. 

Being cautious and ramping up slowly=a good thing. It's a marathon not a sprint. 

[wiguy94]

Woodruff is on track to begin the season in the rotation

 

[Klantz27]

3 hours ago, owbc said:

Put me in the "don't care" camp. He's getting paid to win games in October and anything before that is a bonus. 

1-4 postseason record without a blown out shoulder plus he wont see October lets be real 

[Turning2]

You don’t get to October without a top of the rotation arm pitching like an ace for most of the season. Ease him along for too long, and there might not be playoffs for him to pitch in. I don’t like it, but have to trust the organization on this one. Really wonder who would be the ace had Woody rejected the QO. They were set on trading Peralta regardless. 

[brooks_quichenick]

1 hour ago, Klantz27 said:

1-4 postseason record without a blown out shoulder plus he wont see October lets be real 

I'm not sure why I even bother replying to this troll/non-ball knower, but here are Woodruff's postseason numbers:

3.18 ERA / 0.847 WHIP (1.90 FIP)

28.1 IP (8 games / 4 starts)

40 K / 4 BB (10.0 K/BB)

Brewers were shut out in 2 of his starts and scored 1 run in another. 

[Dragonbait]

Plus his HR.

[umphrey]

Sigh. Deja vu from last year. Hope we get more than 60 innings. 

[Klantz27]

12 hours ago, brooks_quichenick said:

I'm not sure why I even bother replying to this troll/non-ball knower, but here are Woodruff's postseason numbers:

3.18 ERA / 0.847 WHIP (1.90 FIP)

28.1 IP (8 games / 4 starts)

40 K / 4 BB (10.0 K/BB)

Brewers were shut out in 2 of his starts and scored 1 run in another. 

Wow real impressive whats he done in the last 3 years?