Brewers place Brandon Woodruff on IL with shoulder inflammation following Thursday’s early exit

Apr 30, 2026; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Brandon Woodruff (53) walks off the mound with an injury in the second inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at American Family Field. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images | Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

It was inevitable that Brandon Woodruff would land on the injured list after he had to leave Thursday’s start in the second inning with diminished velocity. His fastball was sitting at just 85 MPH after it had been averaging 92.5 MPH all season. Manager Pat Murphy was non-committal of an IL placement on Thursday after the game, but the writing was on the wall.

On Friday, the Brewers officially placed Woodruff on the 15 day IL with right shoulder inflammation. Reliever Easton McGee was recalled from Triple-A Nashville to take his roster spot.

The Brewers rotation is already missing Quinn Priester as he is still rehabbing from his wrist injury that took him out of the entire spring. Now they’ll be missing Woodruff for the foreseeable future.

While Woodruff has not fully gotten back to the velocity he had prior to his 2023 shoulder injury, he was getting up to 96 MPH at times and was incredibly effective, pitching to a 3.60 ERA across 30 IP in his six starts this year. He had struck out 25 and walked just seven.

Woodruff told the media on Friday that there was nothing structurally wrong, he just needs to knock out the inflammation, and that he expects it to be close to a minimum stint on the IL.

Easton McGee has been up and down a couple of times already this season and he’ll help provide another bullpen arm for the Brewers. After Woodruff’s short start, the bullpen had to get worked a little more to cover the rest of the game, Shane Drohan had four heroic innings in relief, but that also means Drohan won’t be available for a couple of days.