The White Sox announced Friday that they’ve reinstated righty Ryan Tepera from the injured list. Fellow right-hander Mike Wright was designated for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster.
Wright, 31, signed a minor league deal with Chicago over the winter and pitched to a 5.50 ERA with 11 strikeouts and 11 walks in 18 frames over 13 appearances in the past six weeks. He’s spent the bulk of the season with the White Sox’ top affiliate in Charlotte, where he had a more impressive 3.40 ERA with a 23 percent strikeout rate, a 7.4 percent walk rate and a 47.7 percent grounder rate in 95 1/3 frames.
A third-round draft pick by the Orioles back in 2011, Wright spent parts of five seasons pitching in Baltimore but was never able to establish himself there. He headed overseas to the Korea Baseball Organization for the 2020 campaign and logged 157 2/3 innings of 4.68 ERA ball in the rotation for the KBO-champion NC Dinos.
All told, Wright carries a career 5.97 ERA in 276 big league innings but a much sharper 3.70 mark in 543 career innings at the Triple-A level. The White Sox will place Wright on outright waivers or release him in the coming days. Players with three or more years of Major League service time, which Wright has, who are outrighted off a 40-man roster become free agents at season’s end anyhow, so Wright will soon be back on the open market one way or another.
I challenge all of you: find something positive to say about Wright as a pitcher. Because looking at his career numbers and having seen him a couple of times, I’m stumped.
It takes Wright only three tries to hit a batter?
Wright never was called for a balk and he once saved a game.
GOAT
He’s really tall.
Isn’t overly sweaty
He ate up some innings and gave some others some rest. Now 13 games up in the division, it’s fine. That’s all I got.
I have seen a lot of players like Wright over the years. They have a skill set that gets them to AAA, but are missing something that makes them a liability at the major league level. MLB is unforgiving.. Weaknesses are quickly exploited.
As mentioned in the posting, he has over 3 years of MLB service time, which is a more impressive accomplishment than anything I, or most people, have ever done. Does that work for you?
It does indeed, well done.
He’s not wrong, he’s…well…Wright
He wasn’t real bad early on eating some innings, but the last 4 or 5 games he showed why he had no business being in MLB.
Not exactly a glowing endorsement for him, but the ChiSox had worse during their rebuild. Actually, he might not be a bad guy to have in your bullpen if you’re just beginning a deep rebuild. That’s probably as positive as you’re going to get.
This is why I cringe when every so often I see any article about expansion down the road. That’s all we need, a bunch more pitchers like Wright filling roster spots. As if the league isn’t watered down enough already.
Hmmm sounds like a harder version of the game “i never…”
Lets see, he once managed to save a game against the Yankees?
Mike Wright has been outstanding when Chris Segal has been the umpire, having given up only 2 hits and 1 walk in 19 batters faced. What do I win?
You win our top prize: Mike Wright will come to your house and keep throwing pitches towards you until he finally hits you.
He is not Carson Fulmer.
This cannot be overstated.
He did ok in the KBO!
He was all Wright…
He isn’t on the team anymore?
He made it to the Show. That is a lot farther than I ever made it.
Shocker- thought he might get game 1 off the playoffs
He wasn’t as infuriating to watch pitch this year as Foster or Marshall (include late last season for those other BP guys).
That’s mostly because you had higher expectations from those other two. Him nearly blowing a 6 to 1 lead vs Detroit was quite infuriating.
Mike Wright. More like Mike Wrong. Amirite?