ATLANTA -- Brandon Woodruff leaned against an empty locker while FaceTiming with his two children and his expectant wife on Father’s Day morning.
No one asked if he was anxious about his scheduled return to the Brewers rotation on Monday night in Cincinnati. No one asked if he wondered what the radar gun might say, nearly two months after his velocity bottomed out during an April 30 start against the D-backs that sent the 33-year-old back to the injured list with shoulder trouble. No one asked whether he felt the weight of being the longest-tenured Brewers player, or the richest single-season salary for a pitcher in franchise history.
Fatherhood has changed his outlook on all he’s faced during the past three turbulent years.
“Shoot, having kids changes everything for you,” said Woodruff, who is set to start the opener of the Brewers’ three-game series against the Reds at Great American Ball Park. “When you don’t have kids, you don’t understand.”
He didn’t understand back in 2018 and ‘19, when Brewers outfielder Lorenzo Cain used to amble into the clubhouse, exhausted after spending the morning and early afternoon with his three young sons.
Then Woodruff and his wife, Jonie, had daughter Kyler in 2020. A son, Bo, was born in 2024. Now Jonie is expecting another son next month.
Woodruff is about to know why Cain never stopped talking about the way his three kids wore him out.
But he wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“They don’t care about baseball, they don’t care about what dad does,” Woodruff said. “They just want to get up and play, pretty much. They don’t have an idea of all the surrounding pressures and wanting to perform and do well. That keeps it in perspective, so when you go home, it’s a nice way to decompress from the day, from baseball.
“It just puts life in perspective. Baseball is not everything to them. That’s a cool thing.”
That perspective has been especially helpful ever since Woodruff suffered a major shoulder injury on the eve of the 2023 postseason that has altered the course of his career. He spent 2024 rehabbing, made a comeback in ‘25 only to have it cut short by a setback on the eve of the postseason once again, then made another comeback in ‘26 only to go down at the end of April.
He had a minor procedure in May to drain a cyst in his shoulder and made a pair of rehab starts this month, reaching 82 pitches last week for High-A Wisconsin.
“We know his stuff is not 96-97 [mph] like it was, but we know Woody, and Woody will compete,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “I don’t worry about the velocity with Woody because he locates. I’m not even thinking that. I’m sure it will be between 90-94, and there will be pitches at 90 and pitches at 94. The big thing is, in that ballpark you need to locate pretty well. I think he will. I trust Woody.”
Woodruff and the Brewers twice considered earlier comebacks, first for the Brewers’ May 27 series finale against the Cardinals and again in the wake of his June 9 outing in the Arizona Complex League. Both times, a conversation with Murphy convinced Woodruff of the merit in a proper build-up of his pitch count. With so many other pitching injuries to contend with – Woodruff was one of 10 Brewers pitchers on the IL as of Sunday, and that doesn’t even count Minor League starter Tate Kuehner and reliever J.B. Bukauskas, each of whom came into the season with a chance to help this year – the Brewers need the innings.
“I truly have gone through everything, checkpoints and everything, to put myself in a good position,” Woodruff said. “Now it’s just go out there and do it. I’m sick and tired of watching.”
Whatever happens when he gets back on the mound, he knows he will get plenty of love at home.
“Being a dad is fun,” Woodruff said. “It’s a lot of work – a lot more work on Jonie, my wife. And we’re about to welcome our third one. So I guess I can call Lorenzo after having that third one and see how that really plays out.”