Though we’ve so far only gotten the tiniest glimpse at what this season’s Red Sox will look like, one thing we have already learned is that manager Alex Cora intends to use Steven Wright out of the bullpen. As there are currently no openings in the rotation, Cora had little real choice, but overall the move should benefit both Wright and the Red Sox.
The first thing to consider is that having a knuckleballer available in relief should be a tremendous weapon. Opposing hitters won’t be able to get comfortable as games get into the later innings, and Wright, who can likely pitch as many as five innings in any given relief outing, will afford Cora multiple opportunities to rest his other relievers. Of course, the Red Sox will no longer have the luxury of pairing a catcher with Wright, but each of their backstops has experience catching the knuckleball, which should mitigate that concern.
We should also note that, historically, Wright has pitched better as a reliever than he has as a starter. He has a 2.99 career ERA and a 7.4 K/9 coming out of the bullpen, and a 4.00 career ERA and a 6.9 K/9 when making a start. Granted, he’s logged far more innings as a starter, but 78.1 innings of relief work is not an insignificant sample size. Cora has every reason to believe he’ll get the best out of Wright by putting him in a relief role. We still have to see how he adjusts to the permanent switch, but this move should make the Red Sox stronger.