Former MLB Pitcher Brian Wolfe Dies At 45
Brian Wolfe died early Tuesday morning September 15 at the age of 45. His wife Rachell shared the news on Facebook. "I'm sorry to write this but after a really really difficult and torturous battle Brian Wolfe passed away early this morning." No cause of death has been confirmed.
Wolfe was one of Orange County's most dominant high school pitchers in the late 1990s — going 8-0 with a 0.27 ERA as a sophomore at Servite High School in Anaheim, and following that with an 11-2 junior year featuring 139 strikeouts and a 12-0 senior season.
He chose professional baseball over Cal State Fullerton when the Minnesota Twins drafted him in the sixth round in 1999.
He spent six years in the minors before making his major league debut with the Toronto Blue Jays in May 2007, at age 26, a late bloomer who finally stuck.
He appeared in 72 games over three seasons with Toronto, going 5-5 with a 3.81 ERA. His best was his first, a 2.98 ERA across 38 appearances in 2007.
After leaving the major leagues he went to Japan and became a star. He went 35-29 as a starter for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters from 2010 to 2013, and his final season with the Fighters was Shohei Ohtani's first. He won two Japan Series titles with SoftBank and retired in 2018 after nine NPB seasons.
He was 45 years old.
