Steven Wright shares details of season ending injury
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| (Photo: Matt Stone) |
Contributing Writer
As the rain arrives in New England today, complementing the dreary hangover that comes with the Red Sox departing Fenway Park for an extended road trip, news surfaces around the rotation.
Bad news.
Steven Wright goes down with season-ending surgery Monday to repair a chondral defect, or a hole in the cartilage in his left knee.
The knee injury began in Spring Training when he was playing catch and his foot caught in the grass. He felt a "little pop" in his knee, so he went to get an MRI, which revealed a slight tear.
It looked like something he could play through.
“It’s one of those things, we tried to do whatever we could to get through it, and it just got to the point where it was just unbearable," said Wright before the Red Sox played the Orioles Thursday.
In his last start against the Cubs the pain intensified, contributing to giving up five runs in 6 and 1/3 innings. Most likely this contributed to his current 8.25 ERA over five starts, second worst in the majors among pitchers working over 20 innings.
He arrived at Fenway Saturday to get treatment, as he normally did, but during the second round of treatment something was wrong.
"I couldn’t walk," Wright said. "I couldn’t get off the table."
An MRI revealed the extent of the injury. The next few days he got second and third opinions before deciding to have surgery and start working on the 2018 season.
"That’s one of the reasons why we’re doing it now, because it is a lengthy recovery process, and if I keep waiting to get it done and I end up getting it done anyways, then all of a sudden next season is in question," Wright said. "But because we’re doing it so soon, and we’re getting on it, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be ready for the start of next season."
Wright mentioned that the doctors were surprised how fast this injury developed.
"Life’s not a red carpet," Wright said. "Things are going to come, it happens to everybody. Something comes up, there’s a hiccup. Obviously last year was a bummer and this year sucks, but it’s to the point where I don’t want to be negative about it because it’s going to affect how I go about my day to day business."
If the Red Sox can get David Price back into the rotation in the next few weeks, the impact of losing Wright would be minimized. Kyle Kendrick is another option to fill the void left by Wright.
From this day forward, the knuckleball will not be available to the Red Sox this season.
Post a comment or via twitter @erics_redsox with your thoughts.
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