Woodruff gets 72% of the vote in our latest fan poll
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Milwaukee Brewers fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
In this week’s Brewers Reacts survey, we asked fans which Brewer pitcher they’re most looking forward to getting back. Once again, our results garnered a clear winner among fans.
Woodruff, 32, hasn’t appeared in a major league game since the end of the 2023 season, missing the last year-plus with a shoulder injury. Big Woo has now made three rehab appearances between Triple-A Nashville and High-A Wisconsin and is coming off his best one yet. On Thursday night against the Durham Bulls, he went five scoreless innings on just 61 pitches, allowing two hits and no walks with five strikeouts.
Fans should expect Woodruff to make at least two more starts in the minors before we see him back in the majors, and he’ll be on a strict pitch limit once he does return. FanDuel currently gives Woodruff +5000 odds to win NL Comeback Player of the Year, which is tied for the 10th-best odds with teammate Christian Yelich and three others.
Among the other four candidates in the poll — Tobias Myers, Nestor Cortes, DL Hall, and Aaron Ashby — only Myers garnered more than 3%, picking up 20% of the votes.
Myers made his season debut on Thursday in San Francisco, and it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. He went four innings, allowing two runs on four hits and four walks with a pair of strikeouts. He looked shaky at times but got out of trouble in his final inning, hopefully giving him some confidence on the way out.
Cortes and Hall each got 3% of the vote while Ashby got just 2%. Cortes and Hall are both on the 60-day IL, indicating they’ll be out until at least June, while Ashby is working his way back and may be activated — whether in the majors or minors — in the coming weeks.