The Milwaukee Brewers suffered a major blow on the eve of their Wild Card Series matchup with Arizona Diamondbacks. Manager Craig Counsell told reporters on Monday that right-handed starter Brandon Woodruff will miss the Wild Card Series and perhaps the entire postseason because of a right shoulder capsular injury.
Woodruff, 30, has once again been a force in the rotation for Milwaukee when healthy this season. He wasn't able to make his 2023 debut until early August because of inflammation in his throwing shoulder. However, across his 11 starts and 67 innings he was dominant: 2.28 ERA, no unearned runs allowed, 74 strikeouts and 15 unintentional walks. Such excellence isn't surprising given that Woodruff is a two-time All-Star and in 2021 finished fifth in the NL Cy Young balloting.
Pairing Woodruff with ace Corbin Burnes gave the Brewers one of the most imposing one-two rotation punches in all of baseball and drove their playoff hopes. Now, they'll be without half of that one-two punch, possibly for all of October.
How Counsell will manage around such a loss remains to be seen, but the assumption is that Freddy Peralta will now start Game 2 behind Burnes in Game 1. If the series against Arizona extends to a deciding Game 3, then Counsell may turn to veteran lefty Wade Miley. You can worse as stop-gap options go, but the loss of Woodruff is potentially a crushing one for Milwaukee.
The Brewers host the Diamondbacks at 7:08 p.m. ET for Game 1 on Tuesday. You can view the entire postseason schedule here.
