Full Breakdown Of Brewers' $22M Qualifying Offer For Brandon Woodruff

Some qualifying offer decisions are easy. The Milwaukee Brewers did not have that luxury with fan favorite starting pitcher Brandon Woodruff.

Woodruff has spent his entire nine-year career as a Brewer, finishing up a two-year deal this year that he signed coming off shoulder surgery at the end of the 2023 campaign. He also finished this year injured, though he hopes to be ready to go by spring training, whoever he might be playing for at the time.

On Thursday, the Brewers were up against a deadline to decide whether to tender Woodruff the one-year, $22.025 million qualifying offer, just a few days after the righty declined his $20 million mutual option. And for better or worse, they decided to gamble.

Brewers extend QO to Woodruff after injury-plagued year

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff (53) throws during the first inning of their game against the Arizona Diamondbacks Monday, August 25, 2025 at American Family Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

According to a report from ESPN's Jeff Passan, the Brewers tendered Woodruff the QO, making him one of just 13 players around the sport to receive it this year.

Thirteen players were tendered qualifying offers Thursday, sources tell ESPN.

Chicago Cubs outfielder Kyle Tucker
Philadelphia designated hitter Kyle Schwarber
Toronto shortstop Bo Bichette
Houston left-hander Framber Valdez
San Diego right-hander Dylan Cease
Philadelphia…
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 6, 2025

Teams typically don't hand out QOs hoping they'll get accepted. Only one person of the 14 that received one of the offers last offseason took it: Cincinnati Reds pitcher Nick Martinez, who wound up having a much worse season than the year before on the team's highest salary. Among those who didn't accept was former Brewers shortstop Willy Adames, who went on to sign a $182 million deal with the San Francisco Giants.

Woodruff isn't going to get nine figures like Adames, and there might be a chance he takes the offer and costs the Brewers a grand total of $32 million this year, considering they already paid him a $10 million buyout as part of the declined mutual option.

Why gamble, then? Because just like they did in the case of Adames, the Brewers would get an extra draft pick at the end of the first round of this year's draft for losing Adames. That was the 32nd overall selection in the draft, no small prize for a team that typically builds from within.

This season, Woodruff had a 3.20 ERA and 84 strikeouts in 63 1/3 innings. He bounced back from a year and a half of rehab and looked like himself in his 12 starts, but his lat strain in September and absence during the playoffs cost a Milwaukee team that was already short on dependable starters dearly.

Woodruff is currently the Brewers' longest tenured player, and he'll remain that if he accepts the qualifying offer. But Milwaukee is likely hoping at this point that he turns them down, which could very well signal a willingness to let him depart if there are multi-year offers available in free agency.

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