Woodruff's playoff hopes take hit after landing on IL with lat strain

ST. LOUIS -- “This feels like déjà vu,” said Brewers right-hander Brandon Woodruff, who will miss the remainder of the regular season and faces the prospect of missing the postseason for the second time in three years after landing on the 15-day injured list Sunday with a strained lat muscle behind his surgically-repaired right shoulder.

The injury occurred on the 13th pitch of Woodruff's bullpen on Saturday, and he was set to see a doctor in St. Louis on Sunday, reflecting the urgency to get this assessed. That info will be sent to Dr. Keith Meister, who performed surgery on Woodruff's right shoulder in October 2023, a development that Woodruff discussed through tears on the eve of Game 1 of the ‘23 NL Wild Card Series against the D-backs.

There were no tears on Sunday, only disappointment. The move is retroactive to Thursday, meaning that if Woodruff makes a quick recovery, he would be eligible to pitch in the National League Division Series, which begins Oct. 4. Woodruff’s comments, however, made clear that may be a long shot.

The Brewers can clinch the NL Central title and a first-round bye to the NLDS with a win against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium or a Cubs loss on Sunday.

“It feels like the last two years, the stuff’s kind of piled up,” said Woodruff, who spent all of 2024 and the first half of ‘25 rehabbing to get back to the big leagues. “But I’ll stress again, this year was all about me getting back and getting my body healthy and back used to pitching, and I’ve done everything from a personal goals standpoint.

“Obviously, from the team aspect, I want to win worse than anybody. So in that sense, it’s crappy timing. But I can’t do anything about it. I’ve done everything. I’ve checked every single box I can check to avoid this.”

Woodruff has been sensational for Milwaukee since making his return on July 6 from the right shoulder injury that forced him to miss the Brewers’ postseason games in 2023 and all of 2024. He has a 3.20 ERA with 83 strikeouts in 12 Major League starts while limiting opposing hitters to a .188 average. He last pitched on Sept. 17 in a 9-2 win over the Angels. Woodruff threw five innings of one-run ball and struck out nine in that start, which came on 10 days' rest.

That extra rest was one sign that Woodruff’s surgically-repaired shoulder was feeling the effects of his workload, which included a full Spring Training, 42 innings in the Minor Leagues and then his 64 2/3 innings in the Majors.

“If you look at the body of work I’ve done for the whole season in terms of the innings workload, probably I’ve gotten to a point where whatever projections or whatever limits were put on this year, who knows, maybe this is my body saying I’m to that point,” Woodruff said. “This is a blip on the radar in terms of the grand picture of things, in terms of my career. But incredibly crappy timing. It feels like déjà vu from two years ago.”

Unlike two years ago, however, he isn’t completely ruling out pitching in the postseason for the Brewers, especially if they are able to make a deep run. Neither is Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy, though Murphy described the development as “devastating” and “awful” for Woodruff and for a team with the best record in the Majors and serious hopes of making a bid for what would be Milwaukee’s first World Series since 1982.

“We're all trying to be optimistic, but it's too early, it really is,” Murphy said. “Coming off the injury and how this happens -- I don't think we can count on it for sure, but hey, if anybody deserves a break, it's this kid.”

Rookie left-hander Robert Gasser, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the club's No. 18 prospect, has been called up from Triple-A Nashville as the corresponding move and started Sunday's game versus the Cardinals. It marked Gasser’s first Major League appearance since June 1, 2024, as he is coming back from Tommy John surgery.

The Brewers were working through plans to fill Woodruff’s innings for both the remainder of the regular season and for the postseason. As things were lined up, he was positioned to start Game 2 of the NLDS after Freddy Peralta and ahead of Quinn Priester.

Options to fill that spot include veteran Jose Quintana, though Quintana is on the 15-day IL himself with a left calf strain and was still feeling discomfort when he went through running drills on Saturday. The good news is that he is still throwing, but the Brewers are considering modifying either his throwing program, his running program, or both, to give his leg the best chance to heal.

The Brewers also have length options in right-hander Chad Patrick, who has bounced between the rotation and bullpen, and between the Majors and Minors, all season. Gasser is a starter in the long term, but he was making two-to-three-inning relief appearances with Nashville in anticipation of a potential postseason bullpen role.

“I think Quintana has always been at the forefront of our minds when it comes to the postseason, his experience and his ability,” Murphy said. “There's no doubt in my mind that Quintana's going to be a huge part of it.”

Then there’s rookie right-hander Jacob Misiorowski, who two months ago was on a path to being a major weapon on the postseason. Now he’s a big question mark, with Murphy saying that the club was considering a move to the bullpen after Misiorowski’s loss in St. Louis on Saturday bumped his ERA since the start of August to 6.23.

“That's being discussed. I think that's a separate issue,” Murphy said. “What Miz showed us the last couple times, he's got to make some adjustments -- and I think he will. I have full confidence that he will. I don't think you can comfortably just say, 'Go ahead, here's the ball for Game 3.' That's probably not what we're going to do right now.”

The Brewers also face a couple of major decisions in the bullpen, with closer Trevor Megill (flexor strain) and left-hander DL Hall (oblique) attempting to get back from injuries. Megill felt “decent” in a mound session on Saturday and Hall threw one on Sunday.

The best-case schedule for Megill, Murphy said, is another bullpen on Tuesday in San Diego, then a live batting practice on Friday at home, followed by an inning against the Reds in the regular-season finale. But that all depends on Megill’s comfort level at each step.

Add it up, and it’s not the ideal pitching situation for a team that relies on run prevention.

“You can't think about it. You're conditioned over the course of six months for the ‘full catastrophe,’” Murphy said. “I've said it before, the season will provide you with the full catastrophe, and when it does, it's the next man up. It's what we've done the whole time, so we're going to live with it.”