The Orioles announced the acquisition of left-hander Grant Wolfram from the Brewers for minor league outfielder Daz Cameron and cash. Milwaukee had designated Wolfram for assignment this morning as the corresponding move for the Quinn Priester trade. He’ll take a spot on Baltimore’s 40-man roster and was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk. The O’s transferred righty Albert Suárez to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move.
Wolfram, 28, continues to await his major league debut. The 6’7″ southpaw pitched in the Texas farm system between 2018-24. He topped out at Triple-A and qualified for minor league free agency last offseason. Milwaukee saw enough in his minor league numbers to sign him to a major league contract. Wolfram opened the season on optional assignment to Triple-A. They called him up for the first time yesterday but did not get him into a game before designating him for assignment.
The lefty worked three Triple-A frames in the Milwaukee system. He gave up two runs while issuing four walks and recording three strikeouts. Wolfram pitched well in the Pacific Coast League a year ago. He turned in a 3.34 earned run average with a strong 25.6% strikeout rate across 56 2/3 frames with the Rangers’ top affiliate. While Wolfram has had spotty command throughout his minor league tenure, his fastball-slider combination has gotten a decent number of whiffs. He sits in the 94-95 MPH range with both his four-seam and sinker. Wolfram is in his first of three option years, so the O’s can keep him in Norfolk for a while if he holds his spot on their 40-man roster.
Cameron was not on Baltimore’s 40-man roster, so he won’t occupy an immediate spot with Milwaukee. He finished last season with the A’s. Baltimore grabbed him off waivers at the beginning of the offseason. They ran him through waivers early in Spring Training and kept him in the system when he accepted a minor league assignment.
The son of former Brewer Mike Cameron, Daz was a supplemental first-round pick and highly-regarded prospect. He hit .200/.258/.329 across a personal-high 186 plate appearances with the A’s last season. That essentially matches his career .201/.263/.330 slash over parts of four seasons. The 28-year-old Cameron has played parts of seven Triple-A campaigns. He’s a .250/.339/.425 hitter in more than 1800 plate appearances at the top minor league level.
Suárez landed on the 15-day IL last week with what the team initially called shoulder inflammation. They announced the injury today as a subscapularis strain. He’ll be down through at least the end of May. Suárez opened the season in long relief after Cade Povich won the fifth starter job during Spring Training. He had only made one appearance before the injury. Suárez was a valuable swingman last season, tossing 133 2/3 frames of 3.70 ERA ball while starting 24 of 32 appearances.