It's been quite the interesting journey for veteran lefthander Randy Wolf since he decided to have late-career Tommy John surgery a couple years ago -- but his pitching persistence may soon pay off.
While Wolf, who has performed wonderfully for Toronto's Triple-A Buffalo with a 9-2 record and 2.58 ERA this year, recently requested his release from the Blue Jays to pursue other opportunities, the team may yet do him one better and promote him this September, people familiar with the situation say. The Jays will make that call in coming days.
If Toronto passes on the promotion, they will grant him the release he's requested.
But at this point, with top prospects Daniel Norris and Matt Boyd gone (they were two-thirds of the package sent to Detroit for ace lefthander David Price), and Wolf turning in consistently stellar numbers at Buffalo, the veteran lefty seems like very decent rotation insurance. His success has worked against him in a way since it's caused them to hold him; it also makes him a strong candidate to reach the big leagues next month.
"He's got the knowhow and experience, and he's performing the best (at Triple-A)," one Jays person said of the former Phillie and Brewer, in a possible hint that the promotion may be forthcoming.
Either result -- a promotion or release -- would please Wolf, who has waited for his verdict patiently while performing admirably in Buffalo. The Jays did offer sometime last month to let him go should any rival team offer him an immediate big-league spot, but according to the Jays, none has.
Wolf, meantime, understandably has been wondering what might be out there for one of the minors' best starters. However, Toronto hasn't wanted to let him go if he was simply going to go to another team's Triple-A roster -- not when he provides them with veteran rotation insurance.
Wolf wasn't given an opt-out in his contract since he opted out multiple times last year while seeking big-league chances (he did get one chance, with the Marlins, right after young prodigy Jose Fernandez went down, needing his own Tommy John surgery). Plus, no one beyond the Blue Jays was knocking on his door at the time, so he had little choice.
This winter, in fact, the Jays were the only ones who even agreed to watch him throw out of all 30 teams. He got some rather emphatic rejections, including one team that responded, "Absolutely not."
Wolf, it turns out, is throwing the same 88-to-91 mph he always did, leading the pitcher who is 133-120 lifetime in the big leagues to wonder how successful he could be in the majors. While he didn't call to complain throughout the summer, he did admit to some "frustration" and recently did have a conversation with Blue Jays higher-ups about whether a release might be possible.
"I'm definitely not trying to bad-mouth the Blue Jays -- they're the only team that would watch me throw," Wolf said by phone. "They are in the playoff hunt. They have a lot on their plate. I get that."
However, he also has seen Toronto employ 11 different starting pitchers, including others having far less success in the minors, so he understandably wonders whether the Jays realistically consider him a viable option. It's been a different sort of frustration than last year, when he wound up pitching for six different organizations in his first year after his second Tommy John surgery.
"It's been a strange 16 months," Wolf said.
Last year was odd in its own way, as Wolf wound up bouncing from team to team following his well-publicized decision not to sign an "advanced consent" form with the Mariners that would have made his contract non-guaranteed past 45 days, which was requested by Seattle after the Mariners told him he had made the team out of spring training as the fifth starter.
Wolf may have taken the Mariners' request as a vote of no-confidence following his stellar spring, and he decided to play the field. Which he wound up doing for the entire year, with only a brief a stay in the majors with the Marlins.
That figured to be Wolf's final stay in the majors. But he kept at it, and he posted a very nice year in Triple-A. And now, four days shy of his 39th birthday, he may yet be on the cusp of yet another chance in the big leagues.
