The Boston Red Sox have spent the past month evaluating the young pitchers hoping to make the staff in 2015. Rubby De La Rosa, Brandon Workman, Allen Webster and Anthony Ranaudo have all gotten a chance to state their case with big-league starts.

Steven Wright hasn’t. He’s pitched exclusively out of the bullpen as a long reliever since being recalled from Pawtucket. And he has pitched brilliantly, giving up just one run in 12 innings of relief.

Suddenly, Wright has entered the pitching conversation for 2015. Why has it taken so long for his name to get mentioned?

To begin with, he’s 30. Most 30-year old pitchers who’ve been toiling in the minors would be thinking about hanging up their spikes.

Not Wright. He’s not like most pitchers. He’s a knuckleballer, which means 30 isn’t old at all. Tim Wakefield won 156 big-league games after he turned 30. Charlie Hough won 182. Phil Niekro 287.

That’s why Wright believes his best years are ahead of him. It’s why he believes the work he continues to put in will pay off.

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“All I can do is make sure I’m prepared when I go out there and be as effective as I can,” Wright told reporters in Kansas City over the weekend. “I definitely don’t try to think about it. Whatever happens, happens.”

While the knuckleball makes him a viable candidate to help this team in the future, it also makes him an unorthodox choice for the rotation. Baseball is steeped in tradition, so baseball managers are usually looking for traditional players. Managers and general managers don’t always know what to do with a guy like Wright.

Yet, talking to Wright, he sounds like any other pitcher learning to hone his craft. He talks about his development of three different knuckleballs. He throws a “fast” knuckler about 7 or 8 miles an hour harder than his normal pitch, and has a slower version that is some 10 mph below his normal speed. In other words, he’s created a fastball and change-up out of his knuckleball.

He spent time with legendary knuckleball artists, including Wakefield and Hough. And he has learned to trust his stuff, just like any other pitcher.

“I’ve learned it’s a contact pitch,” Wright told Wakefield and me during a visit to our NESN pregame show at Fenway Park last week. “Last year I got away from that and tried to go swing and miss. My pitch count got up there so I’m through 80 pitches in five innings and not able to go deep. So now, every time I throw the pitch I want contact.”

That attitude helped him pitch three scoreless innings against the Royals on Sunday. He only struck out two batters, but retired 9 of 12 that he faced.

It’s the kind of attitude and performance that has the team paying attention – even if they are jumping in late. It’s the kind of attitude that could make Wright just right in 2015.

Tom Caron is the studio host for Red Sox broadcast on NESN. His column appears in the Portland Press Herald on Tuesdays.


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