Pitcher Spotlight: The Pros and Cons of Brandon Woodruff

You’ve probably seen Brandon Woodruff’s name tossed around as a streaming option this season. Even including a 6 ER blowup against the Pirates, the 24-year-old rookie is still sporting a 3.28 ERA with a 1.18 WHIP, numbers that could have helped you in five of his six starts. He’s also peppering a 94.1mph Fastball while hinting at a 50% groundball rate and that’s sure to turn some heads as well.

I’ve watched a few games from Woodruff this season and I thought it would be best to roll through the Pros and Cons to outline if Woodruff is someone we like or not. I’ll be using his latest start against the Marlins as context, as he pitched to the tune of 7.0 IP, 3 ER, 8 Hits, 0 BBs, 5 Ks.

Pro

Velocity with life!

The first Pro should be the easiest to grasp as Woodruff’s Fastball is a solid pitch. It comes it with good velocity that can touch 96+ and even with a bit of tail on it at times:

Woodruff also showcases the ability to spot the pitch on both sides of the plate, such as getting the ball on the inside corner to freeze Christian Yelich:

With the occasional wild movement and impressive velocity, it’s not a bad launchpad for Woodruff’s growth. The heater isn’t blowing me away like many other young arms, though it’s something to build around that can keep his floor raised.

Con

Mechanics are funky leading to plenty of mistake Fastballs

With Woodruff’s lack of strong secondary offerings, he needs to trust Fastball his often…which I’m not sure that he can. I know. I just expressed Woodruff’s Fastball as one of his strengths, but hear me out and give me the chance to detail why it may not be the consistent pitch he needs it to be.

Through this outing Woodruff displayed questionable command of his Fastball, making plenty of mistake pitches, hinting at plenty of damage down the road. With the way Woodruff is delivering the ball – pulling his front-shoulder toward first base early instead of driving it toward the plate longer – he’s throwing across his body more than I’d like to see.

This makes it tougher to get the timing right for release, leading to pitches that struggle to find the plate horizontally. Take these two pitches for example:

Both of these Fastballs came in the same at-bat to Mike Aviles, which I thought was a bit poetic given how he was off with his timing both too soon and too late. Woodruff is missing outside-to-inside as opposed to high-to-low, which is a much tougher problem to solve. I’m not sure I can find a better pair of GIFs to showcase the small margin for error when featuring these mechanics.

And that’s not to say he didn’t get punished at all. Check out both of these Fastballs that missed their spots horizontally as well, but this time landing in the middle of the plate and slapped for doubles:

I want to believe that Woodruff can consistently hit the glove like he did the strikeout pitch to Yelich. I think it’s in there for Woodruff to do there over the course of a given day. But do I want to believe he can find that feel on the given day I start him? That’s a tough bet to make.

Pro

His Slider has its moments

Every Fastball needs a sidekick and for Woodruff that is his Slider. Batters are hitting just .167 off the pitch across the 149 thrown this season and Woodruff was able to steal outs with his bender on Sunday. My favorites all came against J.T. Realmuto as they began on the outside corner and fell off the plate.

First he fanned the Marlins’ catcher:

Then recorded a pair of flyouts despite being behind in the count:

These are excellent pitches, each messing with Realmuto’s timing and located just out of the zone inducing either a whiff or weak contact off the end of the bat.

There was another hint of whiff potential later in the game as he induced Ichiro Suzuki to swing through the ball inside the strike zone:

If Woodruff is going to have success in the majors, this Slider will be a major part of it. There were moments where Woodruff was able to play his breaking ball off his Fastball effectively and it’s possible he can carry that skill through the entire length of an evening on the bump.

Con

Inconsistent secondary pitches 

Woodruff is boasting a 19.1% strikeout rate with a 8.4% overall whiff rate. Those are average if not below average numbers and they can be traced to his secondary offerings. While we just touched on his Slider holding upside, there were plenty of times where the pitch was flat-out bad:

For a pitch that is his clear #2 and thrown over 25% of the time, it is a major cause for concern. Woodruff is getting whiffs just 12.8% with his Slider and seeing these offerings float into the zone makes it hard to believe that his strikeouts will climb anytime soon.

The other option in Woodruff’s repertoire is his Changeup, which had the same issue as his slide piece:

It’s possible it was being used as a “get-me-over” pitch here, but that movement is far from thrilling, especially as he missed his spot by a good margin. There is plenty of work to be done here.

Pro

Changeup has flashes of brilliance

About that Changeup. Woodruff doesn’t rely on the pitch all too much – just 11.8% of the time this year – and saves it as another option deeper in the game. I hinted that Woodruff doesn’t have a strong putaway pitch and his Changeup is far from it in his current state (7.5% whiff rate), but there is some upside here. He did get a pair of outs across the eight thrown in this game on well located slow balls:

These are great. Locating Changeups away from left-handers will get him strikes or possible quick outs, and if he can extend this ability to at-bats in the early innings, it will help tremendously. That’s asking a good amount, but the outcome will follow if the execution is there.

And then there’s this:

Yep, that’s a ton of movement that will make you excited…but don’t get too excited. I know this is a Pro, but I have trouble imagining that Woodruff can get this kind of movement on a pitch that is consistently in or around the strikezone. In order for Woodruff to get this movement, he has to release with his wrist on the side of the ball, something he doesn’t do with the rest of his pitches, nor consistently with all his Changeups thrown. On one hand, it’s great to see this fantastic movement, on the other, it’s not feasible to expect it to show up often nor being command effectively if it does.

Con

Inconsistent mechanics – slowing down for off-speed

The final point I want to bring up is one you might have already noticed watching these GIFs. If not, let me present to you a Fastball, Slider and Changeup for you to observe. Try to catch a mechanical inconsistency:

Just look at that back leg. In his Fastballs, he’s whipping it quickly in his follow through, while in secondary pitches he’s slowly lifting it at the end, more dramatically so with his Changeup. This in itself isn’t a bad thing, but it’s an indication that Woodruff is slowing down and speeding up depending on the pitch. This specifically isn’t a tell to batters (it’s far too late), but it’s possible batters could pick up the lower level of exertion, not to mention that Woodruff shouldn’t have different mechanics depending on the pitch. Pitchers should be repeating their motion as closely as possible with each pitch regardless as to the offering and here we have a major deviation that isn’t a blip here and there.

It’s not the largest Con of the group, though it’s another element holding me back from getting on board.

Conclusion

I’m not a big fan of Woodruff. I’ve painted Woodruff as a pitcher who has the tools to be a serviceable arm on any given day, but without the consistency that outlines a rosterable starter across a full season. His mechanics are questionable, which gets amplified by his inability to make batters swing-and-miss constantly. His Slider and Changeup have their moments and it is possible they develop further with more time in the majors, but they don’t give Woodruff enough to rely on when to play off his heater. His Fastball can do the dirty work with the occasional secondary pitch to get outs through a game, opening the door for possible streaming options through a season, but not much more.