Younger players on the Milwaukee Brewers' roster have assigned a new nickname to right-hander Brandon Woodruff. He is taking it with a smile on his face.
After earning the winning decision in a 6-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday, Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Chad Patrick talked about what Brandon Woodruff means to the clubhouse while affectionately referring to him as “unc.”
While Patrick may have been taking a playful dig at the age of Woodruff — who turned 33 in February —the latter certainly did not seem like he was aging on Saturday.
Woodruff made his first start of the spring training slate in a 7-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels. He pitched two innings and totaled three strikeouts while allowing two hits and a walk that led to his own winning decision.
After the win, Woodruff responded to Patrick’s jokes.
“He said you were going to ask that,” Woodruff told the media with a smile on his face. “I didn’t really know what that meant until somebody sent me the tweet. And when he said it, I just laughed.
“You know what, man, it’s kind of like a rite of passage. I’m kind of getting to that point in my career.”
The 2026 season will be Woodruff’s ninth year in Major League Baseball and the eighth in which he will take the mound after missing the entirety of the 2024 season due to recovering from right shoulder surgery. The last three seasons have not been kind to Woodruff’s health, but he feels young.
“I don’t feel 33,” Woodruff said. "I don't feel like I’m eight years older than these guys, or whatever it is. I just like having fun, I try to be a good teammate, I try to listen and learn, I try to help and have fun while doing it.
“I probably give them a lot of crap in the meantime, but it’s all from a good place," Woodruff said. "So, if unc is the term, then I’ll take it.”
As a veteran of the team, Woodruff tries to lead by example.
“Yeah, I try to be diligent every day,” Woodruff said. “I try to come in, I try to have the same attitude, and I think that is step No. 1 is being the same guy every day.
“Because, as a veteran player, if you’re coming in and you’re panicking, and you’re not necessarily doing the correct things but kind of going all over the place, they pick up on that,” he said.
For Woodruff, consistency is key in his role.
“As you learn, this game is all about consistency," Woodruff said. "You’re going to have good and bad days, so I try to be the same guy in terms of that and come in and do my work and my job, and hopefully it rubs off on guys.
“But yeah, I try to be the same in that department.”
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