Pirates knuckleballer Steven Wright unafraid to confront his 'dark past'

Steven Wright can talk at great length about the knuckleball.

• How he doesn’t recommend it for a young pitcher: “Ain’t nobody going out there trying to draft a knuckleball guy,” he said.

• How it saved his career: “I was 26 years -old, in Double-A for the fifth year. I didn’t want to get a normal job.”

• How he’s hoping it leads to a roster spot with the Pittsburgh Pirates after he had Tommy John surgery 17 months ago: “You’ve got to say, ‘I’ve got to take the training wheels off, and I’ve just got to let it rip and hopefully it doesn’t rip.’ ”

Wright, 36, was signed by the Pirates on Sunday to a minor league contract and was invited to big league camp. Although he’s especially adept at carrying on a conversation, he claims to be “a very private person.”

He spoke candidly and amicably for 25 minutes Monday — to reporters he never had met — about two sensitive subjects that helped derail his career path:

Consecutive suspensions for domestic abuse in 2018 and testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2019.

Wright, who knows Pirates general manager Ben Cherington from their time together with the Boston Red Sox, said the Pirates did “a very extensive job” of investigating his past before signing him.

“I thought it was a very thorough job about the domestic violence. I was transparent with them. I’m a very private person, but when it comes to an employer, I wanted to be an open book. I gave them all the information. I talked to Ben. I want them to feel comfortable.”

Wright is trying to make a comeback after nearly two seasons of inactivity. He does not run from his past indiscretions, but he said they do not define him.

“I know it wasn’t a great part of my life, but it happened,” he said. “It’s a dark past. It’s something I’m sorry for not only myself, but the game of baseball and my family.”

He said he has “moved past” his troubles, but added, “It took a lot of therapy sessions.”

“I had to look myself in the mirror to realize through those times, even though they were hard, we had a lot of good people that were reaching out to me.

“We (Wright and his wife, Shannon,) were having marital issues and a lot of off-the-field, on-the-field stuff. It was me kind of bottling all that up. I had to reach out for help.

“As men, we want to hold onto everything, saying, ‘I got it. I got it.’ That’s what happens, and it ended up being an unfortunate event.”

Setting aside the recent past, Wright is happy to talk about the far past, especially when former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Frank Pastore introduced him to the knuckleball at the age of 9.

He set it aside for many years, was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in 2006 and didn’t start throwing the knuckleball until 2011 in Double-A.

But, first, he needed to learn how to pitch.

“If you can’t throw a 4-seam fastball where you want it more times than not, how are you going to throw a ball with no spin?” he said.

Finally, he became an All-Star with the Red Sox in 2016, throwing a pitch that usually came out of his hand at about 75 mph. After that, shoulder, knee and elbow injuries, Tommy John surgery in October, 2019, covid-19 last year and the suspensions kept getting in the way.

He thought about quitting.

“It wasn’t so much the rehab through the Tommy John. The Tommy John was a blessing in disguise because it allowed my body to heal,” he said. “My knee’s been the biggest thorn in my side. I’d do well for a month and all of a sudden, my knee would blow up. I never actually let it heal.

“Nine months ago, I was probably on the fence, 50-50. Do I do this? Do I not? I’ve had a great career. If it would have ended, it’s not the way I wanted to go out.”

So, he started working out with friends in Nashville, Tenn., and now he said he feels like he did when he was in his mid-20s.

“I don’t want to look back 10, 15, 20 years from now (and say), ‘Darn it. I should have given it one last shot.’ ”

Wright doesn’t know when he will pitch in a spring training game. He said he hasn’t thrown to a hitter since July, 2019. His meetings with Cherington and manager Derek Shelton over the next few days will reveal where he might fit with the Pirates.

“It’s been such a crazy past couple years,” he said. “I’m just really, really thankful to be here.”

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