MILWAUKEE – Brandon Woodruff, the longest-tenured Brewers player whose career spans the best stretch of regular season success in franchise history, announced on Saturday that he will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery. But the 33-year-old right-hander wanted to make it clear that he isn’t ready to call it a career.
“The announcement seemed like I was having a funeral or like I was going to announce retirement or something, and that’s not it at all,” Woodruff said. “I’ve just got to have surgery. It’s unfortunate. For me, personally, I’ve got to go ahead and attack this rehab with the goal in mind of pitching again.”
Woodruff confirmed that the surgery would include a repair of the capsule in his right shoulder, the same repair he had in October 2023. That rehabilitation took about 20 months between surgery and his return to a Major League mound on July 6, 2025, in Miami.
This time, Woodruff declined to put any timeline on what’s ahead.
“The good news is I know exactly what this rehab entails,” Woodruff said.
Woodruff is 55-30 with a 3.10 ERA in parts of nine seasons with the Brewers, the lowest ERA in franchise history for a pitcher who has logged at least 500 innings. He was a National League All-Star in 2019 and ‘21 and pitched in three postseason Game 1s, including an extended relief appearance during the 2018 NLCS against the Dodgers in which he hit a home run off expected future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw that remains one of the biggest moments in Miller Park/American Family Field history. It happened to be the subject of a bobblehead giveaway at the stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Recent years, though, have been difficult. Woodruff has been limited to 32 starts over the past four seasons, mostly because of the shoulder injury that first sidelined him as the Brewers closed in on the first of their three consecutive National League Central titles in 2023.
He returned in ‘25 with less zip on his fastball, but remained effective to the tune of a 3.20 ERA in 12 starts before a lat injury late last season showed that his shoulder was out of bullets. So he rehabbed again, made Milwaukee’s Opening Day roster this year and delivered a 2.98 ERA in nine starts.
Twice along the way in 2026, his velocity plummeted and landed Woodruff back on the injured list. The latest instance of that was a July 4 start at Arizona, when he struck out the final two hitters on changeups. His final four-seam fastball was at 86.6 mph.
“If you watch my reaction out there, I kind of knew it was bad,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “Then it settled into my mind that, in my experience coming here in 2016, this is a Brewers icon. His presence, everything about him when he steps on that hill. You think about his last seven, eight starts, rocking 89-92 [mph] with the exact same demeanor, and the hitters reacted like it was 98. ...
“[Losing him] is hard to stomach for our team. Not just from a competitive standpoint, but the person.”
Woodruff is a free agent at season’s end, and with no guarantees he will pitch in a Brewers uniform again, he mentioned the NLCS home run as part of what he will be remembered for in Milwaukee.
But he wasn’t yet prepared to ponder the question of legacy.
“I’m not happy about [needing surgery], but you know, it’s a beautiful thing where this all came at a time for me when my third child just came,” said Woodruff, whose wife, Jonie, gave birth to a son this week. “We had an All-Star break and had time to really sit down and think about this.
“But yeah, I’m not having a funeral or anything.”