Trio of rotation arms use upcoming free agency as extra motivation

PHOENIX -- The three free-agents-to-be who are hoping to make their mark on the Brewers’ starting rotation this season -- Brandon Woodruff, Nestor Cortes and Aaron Civale -- were all in action Thursday. Woodruff and Cortes, still easing toward game action, squared off against the likes of Christian Yelich in a morning round of live batting practice. Hours later on the same mound, Civale started Milwaukee’s Cactus League game against Bobby Witt Jr. and Kansas City.

Since the Brewers are always turning over the roster to keep young, controllable talent flowing, it has been some time since so many pitchers in contract years dotted the rotation. Assistant GM Karl Mueller goes all the way back to 2004 with the organization and recalled 2012 as a possible comp, when Zack Greinke, Shaun Marcum and Randy Wolf were all free agents-to-be. Though in that case, Wolf’s contract had a club option.

For Civale, the trick is not to ignore how much is riding on his performance this season, but rather to embrace it.

“You just have to enjoy whatever the situation is,” said Civale, who employed all seven of his pitches during a 41-pitch Cactus League debut in the Brewers’ 12-5 win. “If you’re in college, you’re thinking about getting drafted. If you’re in the Minors, you’re thinking about moving up. Early in your big league career, you’re thinking about getting to arbitration or whatever it may be.

“It’s nothing new. You just have to rely on thoughts from the past and how you got through that year. At the end of the day, the best form of baseball comes when you’re just enjoying yourself and having fun and you’re out there competing for the guys around you.”

Ask baseball operations folks and they’ll give you different opinions about whether the “contract year bump” is a real thing. The Society for American Baseball Research actually has a page dedicated to the question that includes similarly mixed results, including one method devised about a decade ago that found a positive effect for hitters in a contract year, but a slight negative effect for pitchers.

For Brewers front office officials, it’s more of a quirk than anything.

“We haven’t spent any real minutes talking about it,” assistant GM Matt Kleine said. “It’s always great to have players who are especially motivated, and hopefully that turns out in our favor this year as an organization.

“Logically, it makes sense that people -- even outside the world of baseball -- who have extra motivation, financial or otherwise, may tend to perform better. Our job is to make sure we put those players in position to succeed. If they cash in at the end of the season, fantastic. It probably means everyone benefits in that scenario.”

Civale and Cortes belong in a different category than Woodruff, who missed all of last season while recovering from major surgery to repair his right shoulder in October 2023. Soon after surgery he was nontendered, but stayed with the Brewers when he signed a two-year, $17.5 million contract in January 2024 that paid him $2.5 million last year and is worth $5 million this year. He also has a $20 million mutual option for 2026, though mutual options are rarely exercised by both sides. The buyout of that option would pay Woodruff another $10 million, according to the Associated Press; half payable on Jan. 15, 2026, and the remainder on July 15, 2026.

Thursday’s live BP session was his third, and more are in store before he graduates to pitching in a Cactus League game. Woodruff is not expected to be in the rotation on Opening Day, and asked to be judged not on his early-season performance as he completes his comeback, but what he looks like in the season half once he has a foundation under him.

On top of all of that, there’s the likelihood of free agency looming.

“Yeah, you have to layer that in there, too,” Woodruff said. “To be quite honest, I haven’t thought much about that. You get so caught up in the recovery process. I’ll be a free agent at year’s end, but I haven’t thought one thing, really, about that. In my eyes, all that stuff takes care of itself if I get back to be the pitcher I know I am.”

There is more certainty for Cortes, whom the Brewers acquired from the Yankees alongside infield prospect Caleb Durbin in the Devin Williams trade, and Civale, picked up last July in a trade with the Rays. Civale came to Milwaukee with a 5.07 ERA after 17 starts for Tampa Bay, then went 6-3 with a 3.53 ERA in 14 starts for the Brewers down the stretch.

He’d like to replicate that success as a springboard into free agency.

“That’s definitely the ground level. That’s the goal, to have that as the baseline,” he said. “You’re always looking to improve, looking for things that are out of whack and how to get them back on track. And when things are going well, you look to push the boundaries. If you’re ever settled comfortable and you think you have it figured out, then you probably won’t be playing within the next couple of years.”