Brandon Woodruff Looks Like He's Reinventing Himself (Again)

It's been six weeks since Brandon Woodruff last pitched in a big-league game. After leaving his start on April 30 with a dead arm and having a cyst drained in his surgically repaired right shoulder, he and the Brewers have taken his rehab slowly. It seems he's finally nearing a return, though, as he threw 68 pitches in an Arizona Complex League game on Tuesday night.

Before that outing, Woodruff threw three simulated innings of live at-bats in Milwaukee last week. With media present for that session, he appeared to lean heavily on cutters and changeups. There were no public velocity readings, but his main fastballs looked slower than his usual post-surgery cruising speed of 92-93 mph. Velocity didn't look like the focus of the session, anyway, as MLB.com's Adam McCalvy reported that Woodruff was testing a lower arm slot so that his shoulder could work more efficiently.

Those changes in release, velocity, and pitch usage all carried over to the ACL, where Woodruff worked 3 2/3 innings. The results from that outing don't matter, but there are takeaways to glean from how his stuff moved and how he used it. Like his simulated outing, there were signs that Woodruff might return to the big leagues as a slightly different pitcher than he was several weeks ago.

Woodruff's four-seamer and sinker combined to average 90.6 mph on Tuesday. That's a welcome improvement after his fastballs dropped into the mid-80s in his last big-league appearance, but it's also more than a tick below his season average of 92.2. He was also cutting the ball more from his lower slot, leading to less induced vertical break on his four-seamer—the late carry that got hitters to swing underneath the ball for whiffs, even at 92—and less arm-side run on his two-seamer and changeup.

Perhaps Woodruff will find more of that backspin carry as he settles into that lower slot. The adrenaline boost of pitching in meaningful games could also nudge that velocity closer to that 91-93 range, where he learned to succeed last year by tunneling his two-seamer and new cutter to work both sides of the plate. Right now, though, he looks like a pitcher responding to the possibility that his raw stuff has further declined.

If Woodruff is indeed preparing to navigate hitters differently, his cutter might be at the center of that new approach. Last season, he threw it just 12% of the time to left-handed batters. Facing a lineup with eight lefties on Tuesday, he used it more than 30% of the time, another sign that it may be a bigger part of his pitch mix moving forward.

Because that cutter is a true cut fastball, Woodruff could miss barrels with it as his primary pitch if necessary. While he threw fewer four-seamers last year, it still played well over the heart of the plate when he did use it. If that pitch is less effective in the zone with diminished velocity and movement, throwing more cutters would help him change lanes even more effectively and give that four-seamer more perceived life.

Woodruff's next outing could come in Milwaukee next week, which would shed more light on where his stuff is and how best to use it. For now, the signs suggest he's adapting again and entering a new chapter of his post-surgery career.