The Red Sox announced Tuesday that they’ve reinstated right-hander Steven Wright from the restricted list. Wright had been serving an 80-game suspension following a failed PED test, but he’ll now join the Boston bullpen in place of righty Josh Smith, who has been optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket. The Sox transferred Nathan Eovaldi from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a spot for Wright on the 40-man roster.
Wright, 34, was afforded a brief minor league tuneup in accordance with the suspension rules set forth in the JDA, and he pitched 9 2/3 innings with two runs allowed in Triple-A during that unpaid stint. He’ll return to the Sox in hopes of approximating the 2.68 ERA he posted in 53 2/3 innings last season. The knuckleballer’s averages of 7.0 K/9 and 4.4 BB/9 weren’t nearly as impressive as that ERA, however, and Wright has been rather inconsistent on a year-to-year basis, making it tough to know what to expect from him moving forward.
Despite a lack of offseason additions, Boston relievers rank eighth in the Majors in ERA (3.96). seventh in FIP (4.07) and seventh in xFIP (4.17). The Boston ’pen currently paces the Majors in K/9 (10.7) and overall strikeout percentage (27.5 percent), and while Wright won’t help in that regard, he’ll be expected to strengthen the overall unit by deepening the mix and perhaps providing some stability in a long relief capacity.
Wright won’t be eligible for postseason play, should the Red Sox return to October baseball. He’ll turn 35 in August and is under team control through the 2020 season via the arbitration process. His 80-game ban ultimately cost him roughly $651K of this season’s $1.375MM salary.
He will be a welcome addition for long relief efforts on 5th day starts from Johnson. Maybe we can get 7 innings between the two instead of using 4 pitchers.
Absolutely ask long as his knee stays healthy.
“You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?” — the “other” Steven Wright
I was born cesserian section, you wouldn’t notice except when I leave the house I go out the window
Last night I was playing poker with tarot cards, I got a full house and four people died.
Wow, big whoop. Wright is far from a panacea for the 2019 Red Sox : /
GM Dombrowski needs to tell the fans that they are hamstrung by the salary cap and Manager Cora needs to be honest and admit that they did not deal with this WS hangover well going back to Spring Training instead of using verbal smoke screens and talking down to the knowledgeable Boston fans like they’re in the Kansas City market.
There is still plenty of time to right this ship.
Cora also needs to admit he deep-sixed the first three weeks of the season by “resting” his starting pitchers in pre-season. That’s why they aren’t a strong contender right now. Since his miserable start, Chris Sale’s ERA is around 2.30.
I heard Steven Wright has a map of the US….actual size.
His last invention was powdered water. All you do is add water.