BRADENTON, Fla. -- The dying art of the knuckleball is getting another chance at life in the majors, thanks to a player that’s short on chances of his own.
Steven Wright comfortably settled into a Pirates cap and t-shirt Monday afternoon in the “Zoom room” at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla. He’d already done his physical labor for the day -- throwing a bullpen session to starting catcher Jacob Stallings. But then came the awkward part.
Wright joins the Pirates more than 18 months removed from his last major league appearance. He’s struggled with recurring injuries to his surgically-repaired knee and subsequent Tommy John surgery in October 2019. But both seasons before he was sidelined were marred by suspensions.
He missed the first 15 games in 2018 because of offseason domestic assault charges that were eventually dropped. Then he served an 80-game penalty at the start of 2019 after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
“I know it wasn't a great part of my life but it happened,” Wright said Monday. “I gave [the Pirates] all the information because I wanted them to be comfortable knowing what had happened but that's not who I am. It's a dark past, it's something I'm definitely sorry for not only myself but the game of baseball and my family. But we've moved past that.”
According to Wright, a combination of extensive therapy sessions and self-reflection and expression helped him get through the difficult portions of his life, and his marriage.
“A lot of off the field, on the field stuff and it was me kind of bottling all that up and then I didn't reach out for help," Wright said. "That's one thing, I've been trying help other guys too, it's like as men we want to hold on to everything saying, 'I got it, I got it' and that's what kind of happened.”
Within the past year, Wright had questioned whether or not he should even try to give it another go at the majors. The layoff from the Tommy John recovery and pandemic-shortened season gave his body a chance to heal. And he didn’t want the legacy of his 14 years in professional baseball reduced to his two biggest mistakes. So when the Pirates were the first team to offer Wright a job, supposedly after a showcase and some careful vetting, the 36-year-old jumped at the opportunity.
“I feel better than I have probably since I was 25, 28 years old.’ I’m 36 and I feel so good right now,” he said. “I don't want to look back 15 or 20 years from now and be like, ‘Damn, I should have given it one last shot.’”
Ben Cherington already traded for Wright once in 2012 when he was the general manager of the Red Sox. Cherington sent first baseman Lars Anderson, who was considered among the club’s top-10 prospects the year prior, to Cleveland for a Double-A pitcher that had just transformed into a knuckleballer.
Wright first reached Triple-A in 2009, but by 2012, he’d be back down a level in the Eastern League. It was in Akron that Wright says he first decided to test out the knuckleball as a professional. He hopped on a mound and threw some uncatchable knucklers to Miguel Perez, his backstop at the time and the Pirates’ current Double-A manager in Altoona.
“I just started chucking them. And I was throwing like 84 mph, I was just throwing the crap out of it,” Wright said. “Jason Bere and Greg Hibbard, our pitching coaches, were like, 'That's your out pitch.' And then it kind of evolved into my only pitch.”
The foundation of the knuckleball for Wright came when he was Little League age, where former big league pitcher and family friend in California, Frank Pastore, first showed him the pitch. When Wright decided to add it to his arsenal more than a decade later, Pastore called on his brief interactions with legendary knuckleballer Phil Niekro and they worked on refining the pitch.
With heavy use of the knuckleball at three different speeds, Wright would eventually become an All-Star within the Red Sox rotation in 2016. He owned a 3.33 ERA and pitched four complete games over 24 starts. He also mixes in a fastball and curveball, the latter of which he uses to get back into counts.
Wright was used mostly out of the bullpen in his limited time in the majors in 2018 and 2019. It’s unclear what his role will be for the Pirates, should he make the big-league roster at any point in the season. The late arrival to camp isn’t going to make things easy for him or the club, but because he won’t need to build up his velocity throwing a knuckleball, his next shot at the majors could come sooner than expected.
“I don’t like to put timetables on anything. I have a bullpen in a couple days. Then I’m going to do a live,” Wright said. “I haven’t seen a hitter since July of 2019. I think I have to start there first.
“I don’t want to get ahead of myself because then I forget I have to take care of the day. I feel like if I can keep it that simple, then it’s going to help me get through the rest of the year.”
