Brewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff, on the injured list since May 30, has now been diagnosed with Raynaud's Syndrome

WASHINGTON -- The good news for Brandon Woodruff is his sprained right ankle is pretty well healed.

The bad news is now the right-hander dealing with a different, somewhat more nebulous malady that's going to continue to keep him sidelined for at least the immediate future.

Woodruff has been diagnosed with Raynaud's Syndrome, a condition that is limiting the blood flow to the index, middle and ring fingers on his right hand and causing numbness.

It's a concerning situation for a pitcher who needs to be able to grip and feel the baseball, but Woodruff said Friday in advance of the Milwaukee Brewers' three-game set against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park that he's beginning to notice some improvement.

"In terms of the way I felt today, I think it’s just going to keep getting better," Woodruff said. "Guys have dealt with this before. Somebody on our team has dealt with it before. I’ve talked with them a lot about it. They dealt with it a few years ago and for them, it took a couple weeks and then it was gone.

"I don’t know what that means for me. This is probably the fourth day I’ve been taking the meds, and today is a lot better than yesterday."

Woodruff landed on the IL on May 30 after leaving a start against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium prematurely.

He traveled back to Milwaukee to be examined then met the Brewers at Wrigley Field, where they were beginning a series against the Chicago Cubs.

It was then he noticed something was wrong with his fingers.

"It’s crazy. Literally as soon as I got put on the IL, I just noticed my fingers – they’re starting to get cold right now – were just freezing," he said. "I thought, ‘This is weird.’

"First day, came back and played catch from the ankle. I just noticed my fingers were turning white and I thought that was weird. Then the following day it was worse, and I couldn’t feel the ball. So, that’s when I went in.

"I had already informed them about my fingers being cold and stuff, but we didn’t really know what was going on. I played catch again the following day and same thing – still pretty bad – and (the team doctor) was there and he checked it out and went and got bloodwork done and all the tests I had done came back normal.

"Basically, it’s just Raynaud’s."

Woodruff said as far as he knows, no one else in his family tree has the condition and that he's unsure how it popped up in his case.

"Never had it," he said. "I’ve researched and looked and cold weather can start it, stress can start it. A number of different things can start it.

"But, it just comes and goes."

Woodruff played catch Friday and is scheduled to throw off a mound to a catcher on Saturday, which is progress. But because of the lingering numbness he's only able to throw fastballs and changeups.

"We’ve just been going day to day in terms of is it refilling (with blood) quick enough, am I having feeling?" he said. "Today was pretty good. The fastball-changeup stuff isn’t affected too much; it’s just the breaking stuff, when I really have to press down. Then it might get a little sore because I don’t know how much pressure I’m putting on the ball and I’m sitting there squeezing.

"That’s a problem because you don’t want to throw off the mound and start doing stuff differently when you can’t really feel the ball."

Manager Craig Counsell said Woodruff would have been reinstated from the IL on Sunday had the Raynaud's Syndrome not popped up.

Now, his return is up in the air.

"It's not great because it is your pitching hand. But the doctors think that treatment and medication will resolve it," Counsell said. "He's seen a little bit of progress. We're hopefully on the right track, but we don't really know exactly how long, though.

"But you can't really throw a baseball (at 100%), and a major-league pitcher needs that. You can't be at 70%; we need him all the way back. I don't think there's any concern that he's going to be OK; it's just the time frame that we don't know."

Whenever he does return, Woodruff will need a minor-league rehab stint of at least one start and possibly more to get back up to speed.

But, first things first.

"I’m glad it popped up while I was on the IL," said Woodruff, who is tied with Eric Lauer for the team lead in wins with five. Overall, he's 5-3 with a 4.74 earned run average in nine starts. "Obviously, I'm upset that it's going to delay me coming back when I could.

"Other than that, I’m doing great. Ankle’s fine. I’m just dealing with this. It’s literally a day by day process. Today was better than yesterday, so I’ll take that as a positive step and hopefully each day it keeps getting better."

The Brewers did reinstate catcher Omar Narváez from the COVID-19 IL before the game and immediately placed him in the lineup.

Catcher Alex Jackson was placed on the IL with a sprained left middle finger.

"He missed some time, but I think the way the series maps out, it's just getting Victor (Caratini) a night off after a day game and a lefty going tomorrow (Patrick Corbin), it just made sense for today," Counsell said. "He's going to be sore tomorrow, but he'll be fine."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff has Raynaud's Syndrome. What is it?