Steven Wright’s 80-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program is coming to an end and he’ll be able to rejoin his teammates June 25.
Some of his teammates have been vocal about the league needing stricter PED rules, but manager Alex Cora said the knuckleballer only will address his teammates for a second time if they feel he needs to. The skipper told reporters Wednesday that Wright spoke to the team just two days after was handed the suspension.
“Actually it was the second day after the suspension,” Cora said, via MassLive. “He addressed the whole group. We’ll see how it goes. We’ll see how he feels about it. If we have to do it again, we have to do it again. But we went through that already in spring training.”
Wright also was rehabbing from cartilage restoration surgery — the same procedure Dustin Pedroia underwent — before his suspension took place. And even though Pedroia has taken an indefinite break from baseball, Cora sounds optimistic about Wright’s recovery.
“He’s been feeling good,” Cora told MassLive. “All the feedback from that is that he’s been feeling great. Even when he worked out down there in Fort Myers. He’ll do his pitching stuff and then add more, like pitching fielding practice and doing his work in the gym and all that. So as of now, no red flags.”
Wright is expected to be used out of the bullpen once he returns but also gives Boston an option to use him as a spot starter until Nathan Eovaldi (elbow) returns from the injured list.
