The Brewers spent all of July bracing for this. Woodruff got pulled from a July 4 start against Arizona after his velocity cratered again, landed on the injured list the next day, and an MRI turned up a new tear in the same anterior shoulder capsule that ended his 2023 season. Now it's official: season-ending surgery, confirmed by MLB Trade Rumors.
MLB Trade Rumors broke the news that Woodruff is done for the year and heading to surgery.
This isn't Woodruff's first rodeo with this exact shoulder, and that's what makes it brutal. He blew out the capsule down the stretch in 2023, had it surgically repaired that October, and it cost him all of 2024 plus the first three months of 2025. He fought his way back, got rewarded with a $22.025 million qualifying offer for 2026 that made him the highest-paid pitcher in franchise history on a single-season deal, and looked like his old self when healthy — a 2.98 ERA with a 47:10 strikeout-to-walk ratio across just 45.1 innings.
Just innings, though, is the whole problem. Availability has been the story of Woodruff's Brewers tenure for three years running, and this new capsule injury is the kind that doesn't just end a season — it raises real questions about whether he pitches again at a high level, or at all. Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy had already been hedging in recent weeks about surgery being on the table, and now it's not hypothetical.
For a Brewers team that's built its whole identity around pitching depth carrying a modest payroll, losing a front-line arm like Woodruff for the stretch run is a gut punch. Milwaukee has weathered his absences before by leaning on its farm system and bullpen depth, but replacing a true No. 1 starter in the middle of a pennant race is a different problem than surviving a few missed turns in the rotation.
The next steps are the same as they were in 2023: surgery, a long rehab, and no real clarity on when — or if — Woodruff looks like the guy who was a Cy Young contender not that long ago. Milwaukee's front office now has to figure out how to patch a rotation hole for the rest of this year while also staring down a much bigger question about Woodruff's long-term future in a Brewers uniform.