Brandon Woodruff is expected back in Milwaukee’s rotation during the Reds series that begins Monday. The move gives the Brewers another starter after a stretch in which the group had been thinned by injuries.
Woodruff’s May 1 stint
Pat Murphy said Woodruff would return sometime during the series, and the timing points to an immediate rotation change rather than a longer rehab runway. Woodruff had been placed on the 15-day injured list on May 1 because of shoulder inflammation.
Before that move, he had logged six starts, 30 innings and a 3.60 ERA. Those numbers matter because they show Milwaukee was not waiting on a fresh arm so much as getting back one it had already used in a limited sample.
Milwaukee’s rotation shuffle
Robert Gasser was the likeliest pitcher to be dropped when Woodruff came back. The current rotation alignment was Jacob Misiorowski, Kyle Harrison, Brandon Sproat, Shane Drohan and Woodruff, with Quinn Priester’s season already over.
That left Milwaukee sorting through a rotation that was already stretched. Logan Henderson and Coleman Crow were both on the 15-day injured list, so Woodruff’s return did more than add one starter; it reduced the pressure on a staff already dealing with multiple absences.
Which start in the Reds series Woodruff would take was not specified, so the practical change for Milwaukee was the roster spot itself. Once he is slotted in, the Brewers can turn the ball over with a fuller five-man group and push the rest of the depth chart into one fewer emergency role.
