Woodford Pitched for Both World Series Teams and Is in Line for a Ring Either Way

The World Series starts on Friday, and one of its outcomes is already settled in practice. Jake Woodford, a 29-year-old relief pitcher who spent most of this season being designated for assignment, appeared in the major leagues for both teams in the Series. As Sports Illustrated’s account of his season puts it, he will receive a World Series ring whichever of the Milwaukee Brewers or Tampa Bay Rays wins, because he spent time with both. He is not on either roster for the Series itself, and he is not currently employed by either club. His part in the season ended in September, when he elected free agency.

How did Woodford end up pitching for both finalists?

His season started with a trade. Woodford spent spring training with Tampa Bay, the club based near his hometown of St. Petersburg, and in late March the Rays sent him to Milwaukee for pitcher K.C. Hunt and cash, as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s roster accounting records. He opened the season in the Brewers’ bullpen and stayed there into June: 16 appearances, a 1-0 record, a 6.94 ERA and one save in 23.1 innings, most of them in games whose outcome was already decided. Milwaukee designated him for assignment on June 5 and released him days later, as Fox News’s timeline of his season sets out.

Chicago signed him on July 4. He pitched twice for the Cubs, once in July, when he allowed three runs in two innings, and once on August 3, a scoreless inning, and the Cubs designated him twice inside that stretch before releasing him on August 10. Tampa Bay then brought him back on a minor league contract. He worked at Triple-A Durham for six weeks, and on September 24 the Rays selected his contract for one outing against the Yankees. He recorded four outs and allowed three runs. The Rays designated him the next day, and MLB Trade Rumors’ transaction report shows what followed: he cleared waivers, was outrighted to Durham on September 28, and then rejected the assignment and became a free agent. Four designations, three clubs, 27.2 major league innings and a combined 7.81 ERA. Those numbers explain the designations. They also explain the ring: every one of those innings counts as having played for the club he threw them for.

Who decides who gets a World Series ring?

The winning club does, and there is no league rule to appeal to. Heavy’s explanation of the custom states the position plainly: there are no defined rules on which players get rings, and almost always, any player who suited up for the team at any point in the season receives one. Fox News closes its own report with the same caution, that ring distribution sits at the discretion of team ownership and management. So the accurate version of this week’s headline is narrower than the headline. Woodford gets a ring if the winning club follows its own custom, and neither Milwaukee nor Tampa Bay has published a recipient list or said anything about him. Clubs present rings the following spring, which is when his case will actually be settled.

Has a player been on both sides of a World Series before?

Twice in recent memory, and the coverage of Woodford’s season reaches for the same two names. In 2010, catcher Bengie Molina played 61 games for San Francisco before the Giants traded him to Texas on July 1 to make room for Buster Posey. The Giants and Rangers then met in the World Series. San Francisco won in five games, and Molina received a ring from the club that had traded him and then beaten him. A year later, reliever Arthur Rhodes opened the season with Texas and finished it with St. Louis. The Cardinals beat the Rangers in seven games, and Rhodes collected the only ring of his 20-year career, on Sports Illustrated’s account. Woodford’s case differs from both in one respect. Molina played in the Series. Rhodes was on the winning roster. Woodford will watch it as a free agent, a pitcher whose claim rests on 17 regular season appearances split across the two dugouts.

Why does this Series suit the oddity?

Both clubs are chasing the first championship in their history, a point this site’s Brewers Timeless Ticket dispute coverage has circled all week, since Milwaukee’s long-time ticket holders spent October arguing about what the club owes the people who were there at the start. Tampa Bay reached the Series behind Freddy Peralta, who spent years as Milwaukee’s ace before pitching the Rays into a World Series against his old team. Peralta is the Series’ loud crossover story: a star facing the club that traded him. Woodford is the quiet one. He crossed between the same two clubs across the season, counting the spring trade and the August return, and the crossing only became visible when the bracket settled. Junior Caminero’s first postseason home run sent the Rays here; Woodford’s contribution to the same pennant was one September inning in a game Tampa Bay was using to rest its real relievers.

What happens next for Woodford?

The Series decides which club owes him the ring, in custom if not in writing. Game 1 is Friday at American Family Field, and he turns 30 on October 28, the day of Game 5. After that, his own winter is the ordinary one for a pitcher in his position. Having elected free agency in September, he will look for his eighth organization. His career sits inside the wider record this site tracks in its list of the most World Series wins by club, where Milwaukee and Tampa Bay still show zero. By next week one of those zeros is gone, and a pitcher with a 7.81 ERA who was designated four times this season will have a championship on his record. Whether he roots for Tampa Bay, where he is from and where he finished the year, or for the club that gave him 16 of his 17 chances, he has not said in anything published so far.

The story travels because it feels like a loophole, and it is worth being precise about why it is not one. Rings are the club’s gift, not the league’s medal. The custom exists so that a championship is credited to everyone who carried part of the season, including the September call-up who ate innings in a lost game so the real bullpen could rest. Woodford’s season is that job description taken to its limit, twice, for the two teams left standing. If either club left him off its list, that would be the story. Until a list exists, the honest headline is the one about custom, and the custom has held in every comparable case the coverage can point to.