No one is saying Steven Wright is going to win 200 games in a Red Sox uniform. He might never earn an All-Star selection, pitch in a playoff game or even carve out a permanent spot in Boston’s rotation.
But Tim Wakefield comparisons aside, the 30-year-old knuckleballer could become a meaningful player for the Sox in 2015.
Manager John Farrell recently identified six pitchers as being in the “second tier” of Red Sox starters: Wright, Henry Owens, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brian Johnson, Matt Barnes and Edwin Escobar. Five of those pitchers contain the “prospect” label, with Boston hoping that at least a couple ultimately become key cogs on the team’s pitching staff.
Then, there is Wright.
He’s by no means a flashy presence. He’s listed at 6-foot-1, 215 pounds and carries himself with a distinct humility reserved for knuckleballers who understand the novelty of their craft.
But as it pertains to the here and now, Wright might be the “next man up,” so to speak, if something goes awry in the Red Sox’s rotation.
“I need to figure out whether I can pitch in the majors or not,” Wright recently told The Boston Globe. “It’s that time. I’ll do whatever they want me to do.”
Big league opportunities have been few and far between for Wright, who was acquired from the Cleveland Indians at the trade deadline in 2012 in exchange for Lars Anderson. He’s made just 10 major league appearances (two starts) over the last two seasons and never really has entered the equation as a potential fixture on Boston’s staff.
Yet as the Sox prepare to embark on a season in which questions hover over their ace-less rotation, there’s a distinct possibility Wright could be called upon early.
“I think he’s the sixth starter,” fellow knuckler Wakefield recently told ESPN.com. “If somebody gets hurt, he’ll pick up the slack.”
Wright said over the offseason he feels “18 again” after recovering from sports hernia surgery that forced him to miss the first two months of the 2014 season. And in knuckleballer years, he’s not too far removed from his teenage days, as Wakefield, Phil Niekro, Charlie Hough and R.A. Dickey are among the former knucklers who made good livings after turning the big three-oh.
“I don’t think age is real relevant to a knuckleball pitcher,” Farrell recently said, according to The Boston Globe. “In Steven’s case, you just throw out the age he is.”
But in many ways, age — more appropriately, experience — is exactly why Wright might find himself driving up I-95 sooner than the other quintet of hurlers Farrell identified as being part of the “second tier.” Owens, Rodriguez and Johnson never have pitched at the major league level, and Barnes and Escobar have only enjoyed cups of coffee in The Show to this point.
Wright, while also having fairly limited major league exposure, has posted a 3.67 ERA over 34 1/3 big league innings and already has proven himself at Triple-A the last two seasons after converting to a knuckleballer following his 2010 campaign.
“I don’t think you can ever overestimate the value of the knuckleball and the contrast of style it provides,” Farrell said. “There’s some effect, either with the guys who follow him either that night or the next day.
“There’s a lot of benefit, provided quality strikes and innings are pitched. Steven is starting to build that foundation as a big league pitcher.”
Wright isn’t yet a full-time major leaguer. And there’s no telling whether he’ll ultimately be used as a starter or as relief depth as he progresses throughout his career. But as the Red Sox sort through things this spring, the name that doesn’t exactly jump off the page might be the one that pays dividends early.
Thumbnail photo via Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports Images
