It’s not the end just yet for Brandon Woodruff. But his 2026 season is over.
Woodruff last pitched on the 4th of July, when he had to exit the game in the 4th inning due to renewed shoulder discomfort. He had missed six weeks earlier in the season with a shoulder issue that lead to dead arm and diminished velocity. This time, though, the injury felt different. Woodruff got imaging done, which revealed a new injury to his anterior shoulder capsule. He then went to get a second opinion from Dr. Keith
Meister, who performed Woodruff’s first shoulder capsule surgery back in 2023.
The opinion from Dr. Meister confirmed the worst, that Woodruff would need surgery again.
“Yesterday with the announcement, it seemed like I was having a funeral or I was announcing retirement or something, and that’s not it at all. I gotta have surgery. It’s unfortunate.” Woodruff said.
Woodruff fully intends to return to the mound and pitch again. It’ll be a long process before he can get there, however. While Woodruff did not reveal an exact timeline, based on his previous shoulder capsule surgery, he won’t return until likely the 2028 season, when he will be 35 years old.
When he has been on the mound this year, Woodruff has still been effective, pitching to a 2.98 ERA across his nine starts., and that’s a point of pride for him.
“I think that’s exciting. I may not have the 98 MPH anymore, but I can still pitch at what it was this year, 90-93, there were some 88 and 89s in there and I know those last couple batters were like, it was 85-86. But it taught me how you can change speeds, how you can move the ball around, and it’s more location over stuff per se. So that’s the exciting thing for me… I’ve always prided myself on being a pitcher.” Woodruff said.
“You start thinking about your time with the Brewers and one of your favorite moments—it’s Woody out there throwing 92 like it’s 99. Hard to stomach for our team, what it means for the dugout, what it means for the clubhouse. Yeah, it’s a gut punch, not just from the competitive standpoint, of course, but from the person.” Pat Murphy said.
This injury leaves the Brewers with two of their top three starting pitchers entering the year out for the rest of the season. Quinn Priester underwent TOS surgery earlier this year and now Woodruff within the next month, will go under the knife as well. Relievers Brian Fitzpatrick and Angel Zerpa are also out of the year with Tommy John surgery.
Woodruff is a free agent at season’s end, so it remains to be seen if he’ll be brought back to rehab once again or if he will have to seek that opportunity elsewhere.
For his career, Brandon Woodruff has a 3.10 ERA, the lowest ERA of any pitcher in Brewers franchise history with a minimum of 500 IP. He has totaled 19.0 bWAR, a 55-30 record, and 151 appearances with 136 starts.
Woodruff is at or near the top of the Brewers franchise leaderboards several categories, including: bWAR (3rd), Win-Loss % (2nd), ERA (1st), WHIP (1st), H/9 (3rd), BB/9 (7th), K/9 (3rd), Adjusted ERA+ (1st), and FIP (2nd).
