Brewers Release Randy Wolf
The Milwaukee Brewers have announced that they have released veteran pitcher Randy Wolf today.
Wolf, 36, amassed a 3–10 record this season while posting the worst ERA of his career (5.69), a full two runs higher than a season ago.
Signing with the Brewers as a free agent in December of 2009, Wolf couldn’t last the full three years of the guaranteed portion of his contract.
Over the course of his tenure as a Brewers starting pitcher, Wolf was 29–32 with a 4.37 ERA in 92 games (91 starts). His ERA+ finished at 92 despite a career-worst 73 in 2012.
The Brewers did have a $10 million club option on Wolf’s contract for 2013 with a small $1.5 million buyout that won’t have much of an impact at all.
While many figured Wolf’s days in the Cream City were numbered, everyone thought that he’d have until the end of the season. Especially after talk that current rotation members Mike Fiers and Mark Rogers might need to be shut down at some point before the season ends, it was assumed (or perhaps resigned to) that the veteran stalwart Wolf would continue to throw.
The Brewers do have a couple of arms they need to see this September as they look to the future at that position, including Wily Peralta and a hopefully rejuvenated Tyler Thornburg. Also with the return from injury by Shaun Marcum, a spot had to be opened up in the rotation and manager Ron Roenicke told the media yesterday that they aren’t ready to shut down Fiers or Rogers just yet.
As for Wolf, as mentioned earlier, he is now 36 years old and will be coming off the worst season of his career. While that’s hardly uncommon at 36, one has to begin to wonder how much more time he’ll have in a big league uniform…at the very least as a starting pitcher.
Regardless as to his professional future, Randy Wolf is a tremendous man and teammate. Brewers fans will hopefully recall his contributions last season fondly.
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As the additional piece of news in today’s transactions, infielder Jeff Bianchi was recalled from Triple-A Nashville. The Brewers have been playing a hitter short for a while.
