The Milwaukee Brewers had a lot of interesting decisions to make regarding their roster as the 7:00 pm ET deadline approached for non-tender. One name who was on the bubble was two-time All-Star Brandon Woodruff, as he is recovering from shoulder surgery and not expected to pitch in the final season of his contract before being eligible for free agency. The Brewers have decided to non-tender Woodruff
Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Brandon Woodruff has been nontendered, sources tell ESPN. The two-time All-Star, who underwent shoulder surgery and is expected to miss the 2024 season, was scheduled to make around $11 million in arbitration. He will be a free agent.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 18, 2023
This came as a bit of a surprise. Woodruff was expected to make around $11 million in arbitration but the Brewers decided to save the money and will let him hit free ageny this offseason. The 30-year-old pitcher has shown to be a dominant starter when healthy as he is 46-26 in 130 games (115 starts) with a 3.10 ERA in 680.1 innings over the course of seven seasons.
Woodruff pitched well this season before suffering the injury, making 11 starts and going 5-1 with a 2.28 ERA and 0.821 WHIP in 67.0 innings.This has not been the only non-tender move the Brew Crew have made. They also non-tendered first baseman Rowdy Tellez earlier in the day.
There are going to be teams that want to have a solid pitcher in their rotation for the future and sign him to a two-year contract with the idea of letting him rehab with their doctors and medical staff. With teams needing pitching, there will be a handful of teams ready to do a deal like that.
The New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers immediately jump to mind. However, do not completely rule out the Brewers wanting to keep him but at less than $11 million for 2023 while he recovers from injury. Woodruff is a great pitcher but having $11 million on the Injured List for the entire season is not great when you can get rid of that money a year earlier to free up for more moves.
Because Woodruff has been injured and was recovering from surgery that repaired the anterior capsule in his right shoulder, the Brewers are familiar with having some starting pitchers out of the rotation. Below is how Fangraphs lists the team’s 2024 rotation but obviously things can change as the offseason progresses: Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta, Adrian Houser, Colin Rea, Robert Gasser.
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