TORONTO — It’s hard to ignore the curious season Randy Wolf is having for the Buffalo Bisons.

His 0.94 ERA is the lowest in the International League. In 48 innings over eight starts he’s allowed just five earned runs. He’s never gone less than five innings in a start and in his most recent outing — in Ohio against the Cleveland Indians-affiliated Columbus Clippers — Wolf struck out seven over seven scoreless frames. At face value, he’s been astounding.

But what’s truly astounding is how Wolf has done it. He’s allowing all kinds of base runners, with 47 hits and 20 walks over his 48 innings. A third of the batters he’s faced have reached base. But that’s generally been as far as they go.

In 96 plate appearances with the bases empty, opposition hitters are batting an astronomical .430/.490/.453 against Wolf. But in 102 plate appearances with at least one runner on base, those numbers plummet to .118/.222/.176.

In other words, Wolf has been exceptional at getting himself out of jams. He’s allowed just two hits to the 56 batters to face him with runners in scoring position and he’s induced a remarkable 14 double plays, the most of any International League pitcher.

The fact he’s gotten by on smoke and mirrors thus far may be one reason why the 38-year-old hasn’t been given a chance with the Toronto Blue Jays. Working out of trouble against often over-aggressive minor-league hitters is one thing, it’s another to do it in the majors.

But if Wolf continues to put up the exceptional numbers he has, it can only get harder for the Blue Jays to deny him an opportunity, especially considering his pedigree.

Wolf’s career has been long and untidy. The left-hander has never thrown hard, but features a classic starter’s repertoire: a fastball that sits in the high-80’s, a changeup in the high 70’s, an 80-mph slider and a 70-mph curveball.

He had great success early in his career with the Philadelphia Phillies when he posted a 3.88 ERA over 121 starts from 2000 through 2003. But he was hampered by injury through much of the next four seasons, missing large swaths of action due to surgeries on his elbow, shoulder and foot.

He got his career back on track in 2008, going on to make 134 starts over the next four seasons for the San Diego Padres, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers, posting a 3.84 ERA in the process, but struggled in 2012 and missed the entire 2013 season after undergoing his second Tommy John surgery.

He attempted a comeback last season, bouncing around several organizations and even earning six major league appearances with the Marlins, but eventually found himself out of work.

That’s when the Blue Jays unearthed him. In an excellent story by the National Post’s John Lott this past weekend, Wolf talked about his struggles this spring to convince teams to even watch him throw. He eventually got a nibble from the Jays (who were reticent at first) and threw a ten-minute bullpen in the clothes he arrived in on a back mound in Dunedin, impressing enough to earn himself a minor league contract that could reportedly be worth as much as $800,000 if he reaches the majors.

The contract also has a June 1 opt-out date, which would allow Wolf to abandon the deal with Toronto and join another club that would be willing to give him a chance to return to the majors. If Wolf continues to post the elite numbers he has, it’s not hard to imagine another team would be willing to roll the dice on him.

Blue Jays manager John Gibbons had little to say about Wolf when asked about him ahead of Thursday night’s game against the Los Angeles Angels, offering only that he’d seen Wolf’s lines on box scores and been impressed. When asked if Wolf could help the Jays this season, whether as a starter or a reliever, Gibbons remained equivocal.

“He could come pitch out of the bullpen,” Gibbons said. “He’s a strike thrower; he’s a veteran guy. When you pitch as long as he has — he knows what he’s doing, you know? Whether it plays up here, you don’t know. But he’s getting to the point where he’s earned the right to get a look if there’s a need, I would think.”

Wolf will likely make two more starts between now and his opt-out date, at which point his curious case could take another turn.