Pat Murphy continues to torment Brewers fans with Brandon Woodruff's playoff status

As the Milwaukee Brewers await the arrival of the NLDS, their first series of the 2025 MLB playoffs, one injury update that was supposed to already have arrived remains unanswered. With the Brewers' first postseason game just three days away, fans still haven't received any update on the status of their beloved starting pitcher, Brandon Woodruff.

Back on September 21, the Brewers placed Woody on the 15-day IL with a moderate right lat strain. The injury popped up during a bullpen session that Woodruff was completing in between starts. Initially, the move looked like a potential way to give the veteran starter a few weeks off before playoff baseball began; he was placed on the IL retroactively to September 18, which made his potential return date October 3, just one day before the team begins the NLDS. However, Brewers fans quickly learned that this was no phantom IL stint, and that Woody's playoff status was immediately in question.

Since then, Woodruff met with doctors, including the surgeon who performed his shoulder surgery back in 2023, and that development was supposed to lead to a definitive answer on whether or not Woody would be back for the postseason. However, as the Brewers' off-week continues, there is still no update on Woodruff's status, despite Pat Murphy clearly saying there would be one before the end of the day on Tuesday.

Brewers fans continue to anxiously await any update on Brandon Woodruff's late-season injury

On Tuesday afternoon, Brewers manager, Pat Murphy told team insiders that there would be an update on Woodruff before the end of the day, as reported by Hunter Baumgardt of 97.3 The Game, among many others, on the social media platform X.

However, as the day went on, and Brewers fans constantly checked their phones for any word on Woodruff's status, no update ever came. Perhaps it's better not knowing. After all, should the update come and reveal that Woodruff will be sidelined for the entirety of the 2025 MLB playoffs, it would be a devastating development for a Brewers team set to embark on one of the most anticipated postseason runs in franchise history.

As pointed out by MLB.com's Adam McCalvy during his latest Reddit "Ask Me Anything," there are a lot of questions the Brewers have to answer before announcing Woodruff's status, including "If they close the door to a comeback, what if he changes his mind later? If they leave the door open to a comeback, are they setting up the fans for disappointment if he doesn't?"

Many of the questions have to do with how the announcement will affect team and fan morale. However, the longer the team delays the update, the closer it gets to the Brewers' first postseason game and the more devastating it becomes if Woody can't throw this October. Imagine waking up on Saturday morning not knowing whether or not Woodruff will be on the NLDS roster only to find out that he's out for the entire postseason. That would be a brutal blow.

Maybe an update on Woody, the Brewers' longest-tenured player and one of three who have been with the team since their stretch of playoff appearances began in 2018, will come before the end of the day today, but don't hold your breath Brewers fans. It's likely that the team is hiding the information in a strategic manner, but the result is a fanbase that has no idea whether or not their fan favorite starting pitcher will toe the rubber this postseason.