The Diamondbacks are closing in on a minor league deal with veteran lefty Randy Wolf, reports Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (on Twitter). Wolf is a client of the Wasserman Media Group.
The veteran Wolf hasn't pitched in the Major Leagues since 2012 due to Tommy John surgery. He signed a minor league deal with the Mariners this offseason and had been informed that he made the club as the team's fifth starter. However Wolf requested his release when the Mariners asked him to sign a 45-day advance-consent release clause that would allow the team to release him and pay him just a pro-rated portion of his guaranteed salary for any reason other than an injury.
General manager Kevin Towers recently told reporters that he expected to add a veteran starter on a minor league deal in the coming days, and Wolf certainly fits that bill. The 14-year veteran owns a career 4.20 ERA with 7.0 K/9, 3.2 BB/9 and a 39 percent ground-ball rate with the Phillies, Brewers, Padres, Dodgers, Orioles and Astros. The final season of the three-year, $28.5MM contract he signed with the Brewers didn't turn out well, as he wound up posting a 5.65 ERA in 157 2/3 innings between Milwaukee and Baltimore that year before being diagnosed with a torn UCL. However, in the year prior, Wolf posted a strong 3.69 ERA in 212 1/3 innings for the Brew Crew — his fourth straight season of 190 or more innings.
Wolf will provide rotation depth for a team that has seen its starting pitchers post a combined 6.57 ERA to this point in the young season — the second-worst mark in all of Major League Baseball.
This post was originally published on April 11.
Well it seems the Diamondbacks really fixed there pitching problem here.
Wolf really got shafted by the Mariners.
“Here’s a guaranteed contract.”
Hey, you made the team! But we want to give you a new contract that isn’t guaranteed, because we’re going to release you when Iwakuma returns.
What? You won’t sign it? How unreasonable!”
These types of contracts are not uncommon, but to give a guy a guaranteed contract and then try to give him a different one is terrible.
The Mariners have often looked bad, but they have rarely looked evil.
All best to Randy.
Or was it… Hey you made the club but you need to sign this, if you don’t want to sign that’s fine you can look around. The Ms were giving him a chance to show himself off in the bigs. Guess what no one else wanted him and he is about to go play AAA. So some would say he was crazy for not taking the opportunity in Seattle
No, they had already given him a Guaranteed contract.
Then they wanted a re-do, IE another contract that was not guaranteed.
Allegedly it was because of potential injury reasons.
However, if that were the case, they have given him the opt-out contract at the beginning.
But they didn’t.
But they were pretty sure they’d get rid of him Iwakuma returned and they wanted to save a little money.
While he had his ups and downs with the Brew Crew, he always gave his ultimate effort even in some games in 2012 when the defense really let him down. He swings the bat pretty well, too. Wherever he goes, he’s a real pro.
This is KT pushing the great big red panic button. Wolf is unlikely to bring anything at all that the team doesn’t already have. But, KT does like his “seasoned vets”.
Wolf has had success in the NL West. Granted he’s old and coming off major surgery, but I wish him the best.