'Ain't going to forget how to pitch': Brandon Woodruff offers up expectations for his eventual return
PHOENIX – Brandon Woodruff has been with the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Fields of Phoenix for roughly four weeks now, but you wouldn’t know it unless you happen to cross paths with him in a spare hallway or spend your day with the training staff.
This spring, Woodruff has been busy and out of the way.
The burly right-hander gets to the Brewers facilities early and spends his days rehabbing his right shoulder, where he had surgery on his anterior capsule in the off-season.
Woodruff has begun throwing, albeit only from 30 feet, in recent days, as he hopes to make a full recovery from what can be a game-changing injury for pitchers, with the organization that drafted and developed him.
“It feels different,” Woodruff said during a rare morning during which he spent a little downtime at his locker in the clubhouse last week. “I mean, I've basically got a new shoulder. It's just getting all the tissues and everything used to it. The first five throws feel weird. Nothing bad just haven’t thrown a baseball in five months. All the muscles are learning that, like, this is what it's supposed to do. It’s getting better, but so far so good.”
Woodruff's return to Milwaukee is 'a tremendous statement'
Woodruff speaks of his injury in a jovial mood. That’s nothing new, of course, for Woodruff, who’s always been an upbeat, trash-talking centerpiece of the Brewers clubhouse. But it also goes to show that he’s back in a place where he’s comfortable.
It could easily be the opposite for Woodruff. He was one season away from reaching free agency and a massive payday as one of the game’s premier pitchers following the 2024 season. A subscapularis injury in his shoulder, though, cost him most of last year, then a capsular injury in the same shoulder kept him out of the playoffs as well as forcing him to miss all of 2024. Woodruff found himself hitting free agency, but not the way he envisioned doing so, when the Brewers non-tendered him in December.
Woodruff was not going to come close to the kind of contract he was on track to receive if he hadn’t gotten hurt, but there was still no shortage of interest from other teams over the ensuing months.
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The 31-year-old had publicly vocalized a desire to sign long term with the Brewers, then put his money where his mouth was by signing a backloaded two-year deal worth $17.5 million with Milwaukee in February.
“Why don't I keep betting on myself?” Woodruff said. “Money is not the issue. I want to win. I'm comfortable here. I know the medical staff and they know my shoulder inside and out. I think I'm just in a good spot in terms of coming back here. There was a lot of stuff that I weighed out, but I'm able to kind of do – I wouldn't say do what I want – but I kind of dictate and help run this rehab the way I want. I'm not learning new people and that was a big part of it.”
Unfinished business played a hand in Woodruff’s decision to come back. He could have taken more money elsewhere, but his final memory in a Brewers uniform being a teary-eyed press conference announcing he wouldn’t pitch in the playoffs with his shoulder injury didn’t sit right.
“I think it’s a tremendous statement from our front office and our ownership to bring that guy back, to spend money on our future and to spend money on our culture and on our character,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “It’s pretty cool. I thought it was a really big statement that our front office and ownership has made, that we care about Brewers. We care about history. We care about the character of our clubhouse.”
Woodruff hopes to get back to his previous form despite scary injury
Woodruff confirmed he won’t pitch in 2024 no matter how badly he may want to rush back late in the season, but he expects to be the same version of himself he was pre-injury.
“For me, yeah, I expect to be back,” Woodruff said. “Honestly, I'm going be the strongest I'll ever be at any point in my career because I'm going have a year and just basically get my body ready for pitching.”
That’s been the thought in Woodruff’s mind ever since he requested an MRI immediately following a failed attempt at playing catch on the final day of the 2023 regular season.
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History says that pitchers don’t always come back from shoulder injuries the way they wanted. Johan Santana, Chris Young, Rich Harden and Dallas Braden are all among pitchers in relatively recent history who underwent the same surgery as Woodruff and were never the same after coming back.
Woodruff, who had his surgery younger than those pitchers, has high hopes even if he doesn’t come back throwing in the upper-90s with his fastball.
“I’m just going to learn so much more about my body,” Woodruff said. “I’m learning a new shoulder. But as far as everything goes, I expect to be the same guy. And you know what? God forbid if anything else happened, like, I ain’t going to forget to pitch. So I can go out there and still figure it out.”
Woodruff may have made a name for himself as an overpowering presence on the mound, with two dominant fastballs that simply bowled hitters into submission. But he’s also a pitcher who has had above-average command, he would be quick to point out, and also understands sequencing, reading swings and how to set batters up.
“I can pitch. That's why I thought of myself as pre-surgery,” Woodruff said. “I prided myself on being able to throw mid to upper 90s, but also pitch, you know what I mean? That’s what helped me out, was being a pitcher.”
From a seat away in the clubhouse, a voice quietly chimed in. It was Colin Rea.
“Damn right he can pitch.”
The Brewers can’t wait until they get to see it again.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brandon Woodruff offers up expectations in return from shoulder injury
