Good News For Brewers With 2-Time All-Star Brandon Woodruff

The Milwaukee Brewers haven't had Brandon Woodruff available for a big league game yet this season but it seems like his time is finally almost here.

Woodruff has made six starts in the minors so far this season and seemingly was going to make his first big league start of the season recently. His 30-day rehab assignment expired and all of the reports pointed toward Woodruff making a triumphant return to the mound in Milwaukee for the first time since 2023. But, he suffered a setback with his ankle just before he could do so.

MLB.com's Adam McCalvy shared on Sunday that Woodruff threw a bullpen and all went well and that he's expected to begin a minor league rehab assignment on Wednesday.

"Brandon Woodruff simulated multiple innings in a bullpen session this morning and then tested his ankle in some PFP. All good, he said," McCalvy shared. "He’s ticketed to start a new rehab assignment on Wednesday with 3-4 innings."

MLB.com's Rich Rovito followed up and shared a quote from manager Pat Murphy that revealed that Woodruff will need at least two outings in the minors.

"Manager Pat Murphy said he expects that Woodruff will likely have to make at least two starts in the Minors before returning to the Brewers rotation," Rovito said.

"The first time he throws off the ankle probably won’t be that extended," Murphy said as transcribed by Rovito. "We won’t push because there’s an injury there. It’ll be hard to believe that it’ll be 100 percent healed by then, so we probably won’t push it on the first one. There’ll probably be another (start), but it really depends."

If all goes well and he does need just two starts, that could put his return to the big leagues around the last weekend of May/first few days of June as a potential timeline. If he starts Wednesday and then has typical five-day rest, that could put his second start around May 26th and then an eventual return shortly after. That's just speculation and it will all depend on how his ankle responds.