From Rollie Fingers to Brandon Woodruff, a Brewers curse of pre-playoff injuries continues

The Milwaukee Brewers continue to be cursed with bad injury luck on the doorstep of the playoffs.

There was Rollie Fingers in 1982. Ben Sheets in 2008. Christian Yelich in 2019. Corbin Burnes and Devin Williams in 2020. Williams again in 2021.

Now, Brandon Woodruff will miss at least the team’s wild-card series with the Arizona Diamondbacks and likely the entire postseason with a right shoulder injury, the Brewers announced Monday.

The feeling Brewers fans had when the Woodruff news dropped was one that has become all-too familiar in late September and early October.

Milwaukee is again snake-bit — and not because they’re facing the Diamondbacks.

“I’ve heard Fingers in ‘82 (as a comparison),” Brewers general manager Matt Arnold said. “Sheets in ‘08. It is what it is. We’re going to have to make adjustments. That’s why we’ve worked hard to have the quality of the group that we have. We certainly still believe in this group.”

That’s now five of the franchise’s last seven playoff appearances that have featured an injury to a major contributor right before the postseason was set to begin.

Remember these?

Rollie Fingers in 1982

Fingers won the American League MVP award in 1981 and was excellent again the following year, but a strained right forearm kept him out after Sept. 3.

The Brewers sure could have used Fingers in the World Series, including in Game 2 as the bullpen walked in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning. It's one of the great what-ifs in Wisconsin sports history.

“Every time I see Bud Selig, he says the same thing,” Fingers joked in 2020. “Lot of fans come up to me and say, ‘We wish you were healthy.’ There were probably a couple ballgames in that series where I might have made a difference, but who knows? I might have given up a dinger or two. I did miss not being able to play in that series.”

Ben Sheets in 2008

For as dominant as CC Sabathia was down the stretch for the Brewers, Ben Sheets was the team’s workhorse all season. But Sheets was battling soreness in September, and on the penultimate day of the regular season, Sheets tore his elbow and had to undergo Tommy John surgery.

It was a brutal fate not only for the Brewers, who were eliminated in four games in the NLDS, but also for Sheets, who had given it his all to get the franchise to that point.

"That was a crappy situation, individually," Sheets said before returning to Milwaukee earlier this year for his induction into the franchise's Walk of Fame. "We had worked so hard from '01 when I got there to put ourselves in that position. … To see guys take advantage of big moments was pretty nice, pretty insane.

"(Ryan) Braun was one of my favorite teammates. Him to have that moment and CC (getting added) was a big shot in the arm. When you look back, it is 'what could have been.' You pick up CC, and as soon as we get Yovani (Gallardo) back from injury, I'm getting injured. What if you've got them three at one time? It's probably a whole different scenario."

Christian Yelich in 2019

This one still stings in Milwaukee. Yelich was potentially on his way to a second straight MVP award in 2019 when, on Sept. 10, he fractured his kneecap on a foul ball in Miami.

The Brewers lost in the wild-card game to the Washington Nationals without Yelich a few weeks later. Yelich signed an extension to stay in Milwaukee in 2020 but then struggled to recover his otherworldly form, although it's not necessarily related to the knee injury. Finally, in 2023, the Brewers saw a renewed Yelich midway through the season, even if that didn't carry into the late stages of the season with a back injury flaring up.

Corbin Burnes and Devin Williams in 2020

The 2020 season marked the start of the Corbin Burnes renaissance, but he strained an oblique in his last start of the year in St. Louis right before the playoffs.

Then Williams, who would later win National League Rookie of the Year while also being named Reliever of the Year in a dominant 60-game stretch, was left off the playoff roster for the series in Los Angeles with a rotator cuff strain.

Without either pitcher, the Brewers were swept by the Dodgers in two games.

Devin Williams again in 2021

Williams infamously fractured his pitching hand by punching a wall after the Brewers won the division in the final week of the year. Milwaukee lost its opening playoff series to the Braves in four games, including a loss in Game 4 in which they blew two separate two-run leads and lost the game in the eighth inning.

Brandon Woodruff in 2023

You could argue that the Woodruff news is as crushing and significant as any injury on this list because of the timing and how much this Brewers team is built around its pitching.

There’s no easy way to replace Woodruff, who had a 2.28 ERA in 11 starts this year. And with the announcement coming on the eve of the first game in the National League wild-card series, it’s an even greater blow to the Brewers.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brandon Woodruff continues curse of Brewers pre-playoffs injuries