Milwaukee Brewers: How to handle Woodruff’s absence

With Brandon Woodruff now on the IL, the Milwaukee Brewers will have to figure out how they will handle losing their best starting pitcher.

For much of the season, the Milwaukee Brewers’ starting rotation has been up and down with each outing but one of the constants that they could count on was All-Star Brandon Woodruff.

However, during the Brewers’ final game in Arizona, Woodruff felt some discomfort after a pitch and he ended up leaving the game. We have since learned that Woodruff will be heading to the IL with a left oblique injury.

This is a Milwaukee Brewers team that after a rough month of baseball has won five of their last six games and has recently seen a turn around in their starting pitching. Woodruff and Zach Davies have been solid all season, while Gio Gonzalez has finally returned from an IL stint of his own, and Chase Anderson has pitched quite well over his last few outings.

With that said, while the bullpen caught a lot of flack – and rightfully so – during Milwaukee’s stretch of poor play, starting pitching may have to be what GM David Stearns targets before the trade deadline as they still sit 12th in the NL in total ERA even with their recent success. And now with Woody on the IL, it has become a bigger need.

Some names that come to mind are Marcus Stroman of the Toronto Blue Jays and Robbie Ray of the Arizona Diamondbacks. But there is no guarantee the Brewers land either of those pitchers and there’s no guarantee that Stearns even goes after starting pitching as in the past he has chosen to load up on bullpen arms at the trade deadline.

So with Woody on the IL for the time being, what are the Milwaukee Brewers answers internally?

Option 1: Adrian Houser

Adrian Houser has been one of the more reliable arms out of the Brewers bullpen this season and as a result, he was added to the starting rotation when Gonzalez went to the IL.

Although Houser hasn’t fared well as a starter with a 7.83 ERA, a WHIP of 2.000 and opponents have an OPS of 1.043 against him, he did pitch much better in his last outing even if the box score did not reflect that.

Houser has been very good out of the bullpen for Milwaukee but for whatever reason hasn’t been able to consistently find that same success as a starter. However, in Woody’s absence it could be worth giving him another shot at it.

Option 2: The hot hand

The Milwaukee Brewers have shown that they aren’t very rigid when it comes to specific roles for their players and another option for the rotation could be going with the hot hand at that time.

As of now, that player would likely be Freddy Peralta who like Houser has had mixed results as a starter but has looked really good out of the bullpen recently. Over his last four appearances that have covered 5.1 innings, Peralta has allowed no earned runs while striking out 10 hitters, and his opponents are batting just .063 against him during that span.

It is well-known that Peralta has issues in the first inning as a starter but we’ve seen how dominant he can be when he’s pitching well and that is exactly what he is doing at the moment.

Option 3: Four-man rotation

This option is dependent on how long Woody will be on the IL and if manager Craig Counsell has enough faith in Davies, Anderson, Gonzalez, and Jhoulys Chacin. But given when the Brewers off days fall over the next few weeks, they could get by with a four-man rotation and not have to send anyone out on short rest.

Now, this will mean seeing more of Chacin who was roughed up during his last outing in Arizona but prior to that, he had allowed only four earned runs over his previous 16 innings pitched. If the Brewers feel that what we saw in Arizona is more of an outlier as it appeared that Chacin was trending upwards, this could be a viable option.

Any of these scenarios could work in the short-term if Woodruff isn’t out for an extended period of time, but the best solution that will continue to pay dividends even when Woody is healthy would be making a trade for a starting pitcher. And hopefully, that happens sooner rather than later.