MLB playoffs: Brandon Woodruff injury announcement devastating to Brewers

The Brewers are going to be without one of their two best pitchers for the first round of the playoffs

Eric Cole

St. Louis Cardinals v Milwaukee Brewers / John Fisher/GettyImages

Today would normally be a day when Milwaukee Brewers fans would be eagerly anticipating yet another chance for the Brewers to make a run deep into the playoffs. They have a rotation that is built to win a short series and their opponent in the wild card round, the Diamondbacks, just got swept to end their regular season.

Unfortunately, things have not gone to plan as it was announced by Brewers manager Craig Counsell that Brandon Woodruff is going to be out for the Wild Card series with what was described as a "right shoulder capsular injury". To say that this is bad news for the Brewers is an understatement.

Craig Counsell said Brandon Woodruff is out for the wild-card series with a right shoulder capsular injury.

"His availability for the postseason is up in the air at this point," Counsell said.

What horrible news for Woodruff and the Brewers.
— Todd Rosiak (@Todd_Rosiak) October 2, 2023

Brandon Woodruff is out for the Brewers' playoff series against Arizona

One of the biggest things that Milwaukee had going for them going into the 2023 postseason was that they had Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff at the top of their rotation which is formidable for any offense to deal with in a postseason series. Now that Woodruff is officially out, that advantage is gone and that will put a lot more pressure on the offense to produce against a very dangerous Diamondbacks team.

It is unclear when Woodruff's injury popped up, but Milwaukee did steer away from him the final weekend of the regular season. There is also the matter of the large chunk of time Woodruff missed earlier this season dealing with shoulder issues as well. So far, no connection between the two injuries has been made but this does seem like one of those "where there is smoke, there's fire" situations and it is probably unreasonable to think that Woodruff would be available later on this postseason.

In short, it is a bad news day for the Brewers to be sure, but they still get their chance to make a run at a World Series title and are playing well right now. If this roster plays up to their potential, they should remain competitive. If not, this could be a short postseason appearance.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.