Steven Wright
To most, Steven Wright is likely the biggest surprise of the season. He has been the ace when others have failed to answer the call (I’m looking at you, David Price) and delivered a vintage Wakefield-esque 1st half.
Heading into the All-Star break (and on his way to San Diego to represent the Red Sox), Wright carried with him a sterling 2.68 ERA to accompany his 10-5 record and 3 complete games. While he isn’t starting the All-Star game, and doesn’t deserve to, Wright has been a knuckle-balling machine that has earned the respect of his peers.
Wright has undoubtedly been the Red Sox pitching savior and the reason that Boston was able to survive their horrible month of June. The knuckler has only really had three bad outings while also allowing 2 or fewer runs in 11 of his 17 starts. Not to mention, one of those bad outings was in horrible, rainy conditions, so you could almost scratch that one off his record (I am willing to if you are). If Wright can keep these performances up, the second half of 2016 and beyond should look much brighter for Boston’s rotation and pitching staff as a whole.
Next: Pitching Problems