Christian Yelich, Brandon Woodruff get mixed Spring Training injury updates
12/09/2024 07:47 PM
With all 30 Major League Baseball teams in offseason mode at the 2024 Winter Meetings, Milwaukee Brewers general manager Matt Arnold met with the media to provide updates on Christian Yelich and Brandon Woodruff.
Yelich last played on July 23 before a back injury ended his season early. In 73 games, he hit .315 with 11 home runs and a .909 OPS. Arnold said that Yelich isn’t yet swinging a bat, but he is “doing other baseball movements and should hit the ground running early in Spring Training,” according to a post from Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“I think that was a big part of why he had the surgery sooner than later,” Arnold added. “He’s in a really good spot right now.”
Before his injury, Yelich seemed to be enjoying a career resurgence. His numbers weren’t exactly bad in the prior seasons, but the 32-year-old appeared to have fallen off from his 2018 National League MVP form. From 2018-19, Yelich hit .327, averaging 40 home runs with a 1.046 OPS. 2024 represented Yelich’s first All-Star selection since that stretch.
Yelich is in the midst of a nine-year, $215 million contract extension that he signed with the Brewers in 2020. He’s due to make $26 million in 2025.
Brewers P Brandon Woodruff may not be ready for Opening Day
While Arnold seemed optimistic about Yelich, he was less sure about Woodruff, preaching caution as the team works to get him back on a mound for the first time since 2023.
“It’s hard to say at the moment [whether he will be in the rotation to open the season],” Arnold said. “I think certainly, we have expectations that he’ll be part of our rotation. We also want to be cautious with him and his health.”
Woodruff underwent right shoulder surgery shortly after the 2023 season ended. Expecting him to miss all of 2024, the Brewers non-tendered him, then re-signed him to a two-year deal worth $7.5 million, with a whopping $20 million mutual option for a third year, provided he can recapture his old form.
That old form is worth every bit of the $20 million the Brewers could pay him in 2026. In 11 starts in 2023, he pitched to a 2.28 ERA with a 0.821 WHIP. That’s hardly an anomaly from an injury-shortened season, either. The two-time All-Star had the best three-year stretch of his career from 2021-23, building a 2.84 ERA over 70 starts in that span.
Adding Woodruff back to the fold would strengthen a Brewers rotation that held its own in 2024 despite being short-handed. Part of that is because of rookie revelation Tobias Myers. Freddy Peralta was a consistent front-end presence as well. Both should return and combine with Woodruff to give the Brewers a formidable rotation.
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