Brandon Woodruff Facing Yet Another Major Shoulder Surgery

The news he was set to deliver on Saturday wasn’t going to be good by any means. But Milwaukee Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff made it clear that he’s not quite dead yet….in a manner of speaking.

“It seemed like I was having a funeral, like I was gonna announce retirement or something. That’s not it at all,” the Brewers veteran stated before Saturday’s game against the Miami Marlins.

Woodruff confirmed on Saturday, though, that he will be undergoing surgery on his right shoulder, making it the second such major surgery he’s had in three years. The surgery effectively ends his 2026 season, and it remains to be seen how much of next year it cuts into.

Despite velocity that was much decreased from his peak years as a result of his first surgery, Woodruff was having a solid season for Milwaukee. In nine games he’d pitched to a 2.98 ERA and held opposing hitters to just a .174 average.

Woodruff missed significant time as a result of his first shoulder surgery. Having already missed part of 2023 due to issues with the right shoulder, he’d have surgery over the offseason after giving up four runs in five innings of his final September start. He’d go on to miss all of 2024 and the first three-plus months of 2025.

With a fastball down four miles per hour from the season before he got his surgery, Woodruff had to get crafty in order to get batters out to start 2026, and he succeeded. Opposing batters were hitting just .114 against his four-seamer this year and only .133 against his changeup.

“I stopped looking at the radar gun a long time ago. I try to look at what the hitter’s telling me and the hitter tells you everything you need to know,” Woodruff said.

Woodruff won’t be analyzing what the hitter is telling him for a while post-surgery. Instead, he’ll be looking to help the club in other ways.

With another major shoulder surgery coming, Brandon Woodruff can still be a resource for the many young Brewers pitchers.

There’s no denying that Woodruff is a beloved player in Milwaukee, both to the fans and the organization. Brewers manager Pat Murphy summed up the feelings before Saturday’s game.

“It’s hard to stomach for our team, what it means for the dugout, what it means for the clubhouse,” Murphy stated. “It’s a gut punch, not just from the competitive standpoint, of course, but from the person.”

Woodruff has been a staple of the Brewers roster since he debuted with the team in 2017. An 11th-round pick by Milwaukee back in 2014, the organization is all he has ever known as a pro.

For the most part, successful pitching is all Woodruff has ever known as well. In 151 career games at the game’s highest level, the nine-year veteran has a career 3.10 ERA with a 1.022 WHIP and 10.5 K/9.

As one of the leaders in the clubhouse, Woodruff has always been there to provide insight and guidance for the young pitchers on the team. Now that those pitchers will be taking on more of a workload moving forward, Woodruff’s mentorship will be even more important.

“It sucks not being able to help on the field, but you feel like you can help in a way,” said Woodruff. “We have so many young guys and I was in their shoes at one point just trying to figure out how am I going to get these guys out at a high level every day in the big leagues. So I feel like if I can’t be on the field, how can I help do some things, whether it’s a conversation in a bullpen session in between that sparks something in the dugout to where they see something on the field and ask a question. Maybe I don’t have the right answer, but maybe I just give the answer that I think is right, maybe that helps.”

“I try to be a good teammate in the dugout,” Woodruff continued. “You know, if I sit around and mope and not be myself, that’s not gonna do myself or the team any good, so I try to provide value in the dugout and just try to be a resource, a cheerleader in a sense. That’s my duty as trying to be a good teammate, and I’ve always tried to pride myself on being a good teammate.”

All the while, he will be attempting to make yet another comeback from a major shoulder surgery. As far as Murphy is concerned, though, Woodruff is the guy who can successfully make it happen.

“It’s tough to come back from what he’s going to have to come back from,” said Murphy. “If anybody can, it’ll be him.”