Steven Wright is scheduled to return to the Red Sox roster Tuesday. It will be the first time he walked into the clubhouse with the entire team present since the pitcher addressed the group following his 80-game PED suspension.
What was said during that get-together?
"I wasn’t in there," said Red Sox manager Alex Cora when asked about the contents of the meeting. "It was players-only."
Appearing on the Bradfo Sho podcast Wright offered did offer some insight into the tone of the address, and the motivation behind it. The following is what the pitcher said on the podcast regarding the early-March meeting:
"I think it was probably one of the most difficult things you ever have to do because I’m a big believer in clean baseball. I’ve been a big advocate pretty much my whole life in the drug testing and the drug testing policies and I never thought in a million years that I would be on the opposite side. It’s probably something I should have done earlier. To sum up what I told the guys, which I would like to keep most of it private, it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to get told. The fact that you find out that you tested positive for a banned substance is heart-wrenching. I’ve been told a lot of terrible news in my career and nothing tops that. I feel like the respect and the love I not only have in the organization but for my teammates. We have a great thing going with Boston. Alex is obviously leading the pack, but we have a great group of veterans, we have a great group of young guys. I felt like I needed to get up in front of them and explain what happened and the process and tell them my apology for putting them through it because I know a lot of guys had to answer a lot of questions. It’s a distraction. That’s the one thing I’ve advocated my entire career, don’t be a distraction. I want to go out there and play baseball and go home. I don’t want to be in the center of attention. I don’t want to be a distraction. I just kind of want to be present. When you’re a distraction like that it affects everybody. Not just the players. Not just the staff. It affects (Dave) Dombrowski. It affects Raquel (Ferreira). It affects the minor leagues. It affects the strength coaches. Because everybody is going to be asked about that. It’s something I never, ever want to put on anybody. I just felt it was my duty to give them somewhat of an explanation.
"It’s always going to be a work in progress. I think the respect is going to have to be earned back. The trust is going to have to be earned back. That’s something I advocated that I’m going to spend the rest of my life earning the respect back, not just from them but anybody it has affected negatively, which is everybody that I know personally. But I really think the vibe was … I got up there, I talked to them. There were some questions that were asked. I tried to answer them as best as I possibly could. I told them again, ‘If anybody ever has a question about anything I’m an open book to them in private.’ I definitely don’t want to get too public with everything because it’s a family and I feel like there are certain things that need to stay within the clubhouse. I felt like it was definitely a big weight off my shoulders. But it was hard. It was probably the hardest thing to do is get up there and talk about something in that nature."
On the field, Wright is expected to immediately be counted on out of the Red Sox' bullpen. He performed well during his minor-league rehab assignment with Triple-A Pawtucket, giving up two earned runs over 9 2/3 innings, and is returning to the Red Sox with a valued role seemingly waiting for him.
"He’ll come out of the bullpen. He’s been throwing the ball well," Cora said. "We’ve stretched him out to three innings. Kind of like the way we used him in August and September last year."