The red flags popped up immediately. Brandon Woodruff’s first fastball of the game came across the plate at 84.2 mph. I initially thought the radar gun was mis-calibrated, or the system registered an off-speed pitch as a fastball. But then the next one came in at 85 mph, and instantly things looked bad.
Brandon Woodruff looked uncomfortable delivering the baseball. His smooth, repeatable, athletic delivery looked rigid, unathletic, and unusual. He walked Geraldo Perdomo with some really bad misses but somehow rallied to get a pair of strikeouts and a scoreless first inning.
Pat Murphy, the pitching coaches, and the athletic trainer all huddled trying to figure out what to do. Woodruff went back out for the second inning as the bullpen stirred, but no one began throwing. After allowing a single to Lourdes Gurriel Jr, the Brewers had seen enough. Murphy, Chris Hook, and athletic trainer Brad Epstein went out to the mound and quickly Woodruff was removed from the game.
His fastball averaged 85.4 mph and he didn’t register a pitch above 86 mph. Woodruff’s average fastball velocity this season is 92.5 mph, a drop of 7.1 mph.
Murphy on the Brewers TV broadcast said “He wasn’t himself. He felt like, felt kind of dead. He said he didn’t feel any pain, just nothing was coming out. We’ve seen a little bit of this, but never at this level where he can’t get the ball over 85 mph. He’s so important to us. We’re not going to risk anything maybe long term by having him try to step on it.”
Woodruff missed the entire 2023 postseason and 2024 regular season with a shoulder capsule injury that required surgery. He finally returned to the big league rotation in the middle of last season and found great success. That was until a lat injury prevented him from being able to pitch in the postseason again last year.
Woodruff came into this season focused on maintaining his health so he could be available all season long and into the playoffs. That’s why his ramp up in spring was slower and why he did not start on Opening Day. The Brewers have been as careful with him as they can be to keep him on the mound throughout the whole season.
Postgame, the Brewers did not offer a preliminary injury diagnosis for Woodruff. Murphy told reporters that Woodruff “doesn’t feel like he’s injured” but that they would do the necessary testing to figure out what’s wrong. Woodruff was getting an MRI postgame and was unavailable to the media. Murphy would not commit to an IL placement at the moment, but it is very much on the table.
Murphy added, “We think maybe some rest, he can build back up. People go through stuff like this. Hopefully he’s solid and there’s no injury there, that would be helpful. But I think he’ll be down for a while. I’m not going to say right now before these tests get done or that type of thing, but it seems like something he’s gonna be able to work through.”
William Contreras noticed something was off in the bullpen before the game started, “Usually whenever he says he’s got two more, he’ll let it eat a little bit more, and on those two I knew there was something a little bit down.”
We’ll see what the MRI and other tests say on Woodruff’s arm and there will be more information this weekend.