MILWAUKEE (AP) — Brandon Woodruff’s sterling track record and lengthy injury history leave the Milwaukee Brewers facing a dilemma as they assemble their World Series roster.
Do they activate a two-time All-Star who hasn’t pitched in a game since July 4, knowing they won’t be able to replace him on the roster if he gets hurt again?
“I could see it either way,” Woodruff said Thursday, the day before the Brewers were set to open the World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays. “There’s a lot to mull over for them, for sure, about me.”
Woodruff threw 23 pitches in a live batting practice session Tuesday as he continued his push to pitch. It’s a remarkable development for someone who expected to be undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery over the summer.
Whether it’s enough for him to play in the Fall Classic remains uncertain. A club may request permission from the commissioner to replace a player on the active roster for the remainder of a series if he sustains an “acute, non-chronic injury or ailment (not recurring soreness over time).”
That means the Brewers couldn’t have somebody fill Woodruff’s spot if they include him on the roster and he has a recurrence of the shoulder issue.
“A lot of unknowns there, but obviously the good version of that guy is somebody you’d love to have on your roster,” president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said.
The healthy version of Woodruff has been very good.
Woodruff and designated hitter Christian Yelich are the only Brewers who have been with the team since it began its run of eight playoff berths in nine seasons. Woodruff’s 3.10 career ERA is the best in franchise history for anyone who has pitched at least 500 innings for the team.
He's 1-4 with a 3.18 ERA in eight playoff appearances.
“He’s been one of the best pitchers in this organization’s history,” Yelich said. “For a while, he was the guy, if we needed to win a big game, of all the talented pitchers we’ve had here, I would have always picked him if we had a game that we needed to win, just with his mentality and just how he went about it.”
But the shoulder injury prevented him from pitching in the 2023 playoffs and led to anterior capsule surgery later that year. Woodruff didn’t pitch again until July 2025, and a lat strain kept him out of last year's postseason.
He found it painful that he couldn't help out in previous playoff runs. Woodruff wants his chance now that the Brewers are in the World Series for the first time since 1982 and trying to win their first ever.
“This is why I play,” Woodruff said. “The playoffs are my jam, per se. I love this time of year. I love pitching in the big moments. I just kind of feel like I’m ready for those.”
This year, he went on the injured list in early May after a reduction in his velocity prompted him to leave a game in the second inning. He returned in late June, dealt with another velocity dip during a July 4 start at Arizona and hasn’t pitched since.
He was expecting to have another anterior capsule surgery until learning it wasn’t necessary. Since then, Woodruff has been preparing for the possibility he could help the Brewers out in October.
“It’s almost incredible that the kid has worked his way back,” manager Pat Murphy said. “His mind was on this. He was very quiet about it, but his mind was on this. It’s kind of incredible, and he threw the ball really well (on Tuesday). Just ask the hitters he faced.
“There’s a lot more to it. There’s rules we have to deal with, like you can’t replace him, all that kind of stuff. So that will be a discussion today.”
Woodruff’s rapid progress has made it a difficult decision.
“I love competing more than anybody,” Woodruff said. “I want to be out there more than anybody. I think that’s a good problem for them to have right now. There were times where I didn’t think I could get myself ready. I’ve gotten to this point. It had to all work out like it has up to this point. We’ll see what happens.”
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
Milwaukee Brewers' Brandon Woodruff speaks during a World Series baseball media day, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Milwaukee, ahead of Game 1 between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — After Ashley Hinson dropped off her boys at school earlier this month, she saw the initials “DJT” flash on her phone.
“'Ashley, it's your favorite president,'” Iowa's Republican nominee for U.S. Senate recently recounted to an audience of her supporters. “That's how he introduced himself.”
She had expressed a more forceful message about communicating with President Donald Trump on the debate stage with her Democratic opponent, Josh Turek, as she tried to win over undecided voters.
“I’ll be President Trump’s ally when it is important for Iowa, but I will push back on him,” promised Hinson, who currently serves in the U.S. House. “He knows this.”
Although many Republicans are walking a political tightrope in this year's midterm elections, Hinson's balancing act is more challenging than most. Iowans have been hamstrung by manufacturing job losses, healthcare clinic closures and shrunken farm profits since Trump returned to the White House, but Hinson also is relying on the president's loyalists to show up for her.
On Thursday, Hinson took the stage before Trump came on at a rally in Sioux City, which is in Iowa's conservative northwest corner. The visit to safe territory is geared toward boosting turnout even as it ties her more tightly to an unpopular president.
To hundreds of Trump's supporters, Hinson played up her relationship with the president.
“I’m not sure, frankly, that he’s always happy when we’re talking because I ask him for a lot of things for Iowa when we’re on the phone,” she said. “And that’s exactly what you would expect me to do, right? As your next United States senator.”
Trump later joked that Hinson is “such a pain” for those asks. Trump also spent time casting Turek as a “woke, far-left radical” and called on Iowans to reject him. He said if Democrats win in the midterms, that would be the “start of something very bad, very dark, very horrible for our country.”
“I'm asking you to do me a very big favor," Trump said. “I'm asking you to pretend that I'm running.”
Trump is expected to visit the other side of the state on Nov. 1.
Turek, a state lawmaker, was in Sioux City for a campaign event Tuesday and told reporters he was happy for Trump to visit to see how his tariffs and the Iran war have “hurt Iowa more than any other state.” Although Turek says he's willing to work with Trump on issues like immigration, he calls Hinson a rubber stamp for the president's bad policies.
When Hinson kicked off her campaign last year, she touted Trump’s endorsement and said she was running to be Trump’s “top ally” in the Senate. Almost a year later, Hinson instead says she wants to be “Iowa’s best bipartisan fighter."
The message has crystallized since the summer, with more examples of Hinson vocalizing positions at odds with the president. Recent polling from late September and early October suggests it could work as she carves out about 1 in 10 voters who disapprove of the president even as she continues to secure overwhelming support from those who approve of Trump.
In August, she said Trump’s plan to increase beef imports from foreign countries in an attempt to lower prices was "a bad idea” that would hurt Iowa farmers.
Last month, two of Hinson's Iowa colleagues in the House broke with the White House and voted against Trump's ability to continue the war with Iran without congressional approval.
Hinson didn’t, but she said later the war has gotten too costly for Americans and called for Trump to bring the conflict to a “successful and immediate end.”
More recently, Hinson criticized Trump’s decision to ease sanctions on Russia in exchange for diesel fuel. She said Tuesday that the U.S. needs to make sure “dictators aren’t allowed to win wars.”
“I think the president and I share the goal of lowering costs for working families and for people who are using diesel,” she told reporters after a campaign event. “I, again, just don’t think we need to be making any deals with Russia.”
Hinson said she hadn’t talked with the president about the issue.
“Maybe I’ll have a chance to come have a conversation with him at the rally," she added.
Hinson isn't the only one pitching bipartisanship. So is Turek. In fact, he's the only Iowa candidate seeking federal office who explicitly mentions Trump in general election television advertisements, according to an Associated Press analysis of AdImpact data.
In one, Turek is behind the wheel speaking directly to a camera about Interstate 35, which “connects Iowa to the southern border and the broken immigration system that both parties have failed to fix." He says: “In the U.S. Senate, I’ll work with anyone to fix it, including President Trump, to secure the border, stop the flow of drugs into Iowa.”
Turek has pushed back on the president’s policies, including tariffs and the war in Iran, as the catalysts of high costs that are hurting Iowans, but his message on working with the president on immigration and other select issues stands out from other Democrats. Republicans say he's just pretending to be a moderate to get elected.
Mazie Stilwell, executive director of the progressive organization Progress Iowa, said Turek's message on immigration targets a bloc of voters on an issue that's particularly important to them but doesn't overshadow his otherwise disciplined focus on the high costs facing Iowans.
Trump’s visit to the state Thursday, she added, is “a terrific reminder of the disaster that he has been and his administration has been for our bottom line, for everyday Iowans who are trying to make ends meet.”
Iowa is no stranger to competitive Senate races even though Trump won the state by double digits in the last presidential election.
Ad spending on broadcast and cable television has already surpassed $200 million this cycle, AdImpact shows. But in today’s dollars, the total ad spending in the 2020 Senate race was even higher.
Republicans have spent slightly more for Hinson than Democrats for Turek. That was the opposite in 2020, when Democrats spent nearly $30 million more than the GOP did in their unsuccessful effort to unseat Sen. Joni Ernst.
Iowa Republican activist Kelley Koch has been concerned that complacency will dampen turnout from conservatives, even those who are loyal to the president.
"They say, ‘Why are you all hyped up about the midterms, Kelley, Trump will take care of everything,'” Koch said.
It’s an assumption she’s working to counteract, and she expects “the Trump effect” from his visits will help protect Republican majorities in the House and Senate.
And while Koch supports Hinson, she doesn’t like it when she talks about pushing back on Trump.
“Right now,” Koch said, “we had better unite around our president.”
Associated Press reporter Aaron Kessler in Washington contributed.
President Donald Trump greets Iowa U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, at a campaign rally at Sioux Gateway Airport, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Iowa gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn gestures as President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally at Sioux Gateway Airport, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
People listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Sioux Gateway Airport, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., left, Iowa gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn, right, and Iowa U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, second from right, listen as President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Sioux Gateway Airport, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally at Sioux Gateway Airport, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Republican nominee for U.S. Senate Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, speaks to supporters, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Ankeny, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
