MILWAUKEE -- Brandon Woodruff is confident that his long-awaited return to the big league rotation will come soon.
Woodruff, a top-of-the-rotation starter until he suffered a shoulder injury that required major surgery, has not pitched in the Major Leagues since September 2023. He’d been making strong progress until a complication arose, not with his surgically repaired right shoulder, but with his right ankle.
The 32-year-old said before the Brewers' game against the Twins on Saturday that the ankle issue is “nothing crazy” and should be only a minor setback.
“I played pretty aggressive catch yesterday to test it out,” Woodruff said. “It responded well today. I’ll play catch again today, and then I’ll throw another bullpen. It’s just kind of a mild deal that just popped up out of nowhere. Unfortunate timing. Part of what I’ve learned about rehab is that stuff pops up. As far as medically, it’s just tendinitis. It’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.”
Adding to the delay is the expiration of Woodruff’s original 30-day rehab assignment. He remains on the 15-day injured list with the right ankle tendinitis. Now, he’ll be required to make at least one more appearance in the Minors on a new rehab assignment before a return to the Major Leagues is possible.
He returned to Milwaukee to wait out the end of a required seven-day period during which he’s prohibited from pitching for an affiliate due to the expiration of the first rehab assignment.
Woodruff took the news in stride as he awaits to be sent out on another rehab assignment.
“I really don’t know the rules,” he said.
Manager Pat Murphy said he expects that Woodruff will likely have to make at least two starts in the Minors before returning to the Brewers rotation.
“The first time he throws off the ankle probably won’t be that extended,” Murphy said of Woodruff’s pending rehab assignment. “We won’t push because there’s an injury there. It’ll be hard to believe that it’ll be 100 percent healed by then, so we probably won’t push it on the first one. There’ll probably be another [start], but it really depends.”
Woodruff is 46-26 with a 3.10 ERA across seven seasons with the Brewers, including a 13-4 mark in 2022.