High-upside Brewers righty's recurring elbow issue should have fans questioning depth chart

When Spring Training commenced, the Milwaukee Brewers seemingly had too much starting pitching depth. At the time, it looked likely that the Brewers' Triple-A rotation was going to resemble a major league rotation, filled with arms who would be big league starters in many other organizations. However, with the 2025 season -- one that saw the Brewers lose plenty of starting pitchers to injuries during Spring Training and the first few weeks of the season -- as recent evidence, a team truly cannot have too much starting depth.

With the tumultuous start to the 2025 season in the back of their heads, the Brewers front office added four starters (and subtracted one) to their pitching staff this year. After bringing back Brandon Woodruff on the qualifying offer at the beginning of the offseason, which technically counts as an addition, trades of Freddy Peralta and Caleb Durbin netted the Brewers three controllable, high-upside starters: Brandon Sproat, Kyle Harrison, and Shane Drohan. Both Sproat and Harrison have already made their MLB debuts, and Drohan is loudly knocking on the door of the big leagues, which further crowded a rotation picture that already included Woodruff, Quinn Priester, Jacob Misiorowski, Chad Patrick, Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser, and several long relievers who could convert back to starting roles if needed.

However, while the rotation picture looked crowded just several weeks ago, injuries have unsurprisingly reared their ugly head, as they so often do at this point in the offseason. Priester continues to deal with a frustrating, lingering wrist issue that has bothered him dating back to August of last year and has now significantly delayed his start to the spring season. The 2025 breakout star looks all but guaranteed to miss the Opening Day rotation, but a clear timeline has yet to materialize -- a result of the strange nature of the injury.

Meanwhile, though Woodruff is healthy and fully recovered from the lat injury that caused him to miss the 2025 postseason, the Brewers are smartly slow-playing his build-up to the 2026 season, and his Opening Day status remains "up in the air" at this point.

Now, as reported by MLB.com's Brewers beat reporter Adam McCalvy on the social media platform X yesterday afternoon, another one of Milwaukee's rotation options is dealing with some injury concerns.

The Brewers have the starting depth to withstand a delayed start to the 2026 season for right-hander Logan Henderson

McCalvy made very clear in his report that Henderson's elbow soreness is very mild, but given the fact that the talented right-hander missed nearly two months at the end of the 2025 season due to inflammation in his right elbow, there's certainly reason for Brewers fans to be slightly concerned. At the very least, it puts Henderson's Opening Day status in question.

Though the Brewers' Opening Day starting rotation is far from set -- only Misiorowski and Patrick have been confirmed as members of the Brewers' initial rotation -- Henderson was trending in the right direction prior to the injury. After his excellent, albeit brief introduction to MLB last year, Henderson has reintroduced a curveball to his arsenal this offseason, giving him another pitch to pair with his excellent fastball-changeup combo. However, elbow soreness just two weeks removed from Opening Day is not a great sign for the 24-year-old Henderson, whose future value to the Brewers is likely to make the team take a cautious approach to any elbow issue that pops up.

While it's certainly being tested, the Brewers' rotation depth is still strong enough to withstand the potential of Priester, Henderson, and Woodruff not being a part of the Opening Day staff. Alongside Misiorowski and Patrick, Harrison, Sproat, Gasser, and Drohan are all ready for the big league spotlight and could easily weather the storm while Milwaukee waits for reinforcements. Additionally, both Aaron Ashby and DL Hall are being stretched out this spring, and while their effectiveness in the bullpen last year is hard to ignore, don't be surprised if one of them is an early-season rotation option if the Brewers need it.

Hopefully, Henderson has a few healthy starts to finish the spring exhibition season and can help the Brewers early in the 2026 season. That said, the Brewers certainly have the depth to withstand a delayed start to the 2026 campaign for the talented right-hander, but it's definitely becoming more apparent why the front office was so adamant about adding starting pitching depth this offseason.