Wright eager to show Giants what he can do on the mound
Chris Wright is preparing for the 2020 baseball season the same way he’s prepared for every season for more than a decade.
Wright is lifting weights in his family’s Cumberland home and, when the weather cooperates, he’s going out in the yard and stretching his arm out by throwing with his brother, Cumberland High senior lefty Brendan Wright.
This year was supposed to be different. For the first time in his life, Wright was ready for a year away from the Ocean State. The Former Cumberland High and Bryant University standout was beginning his first full season in the San Francisco Giants minor league system when spring training and the start of the season on March 14 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wright packed his glove and spikes and left the team’s training facility in Scottsdale, Arizona to return home to prepare for the season – if
a season even happens.
“This is a weird time and we weren’t expecting this to happen, but we’re just going to comply with whatever the [Centers for Disease Control] mandates and suggests throughout the process,” Wright said. “We know this isn’t just about us, but it’s country-wide so we get that. Being back at home is weird and there’s not much open, but luckily I’m still able to do my home workouts.”
So, how does an elite professional athlete prepare for the season when he doesn’t have access to team facilities? Wright said he received plenty of precise instructions from the Giants minor league pitching coaches about what he needs to do to keep his valuable left arm ready for the season when Major League Baseball resumes spring training.
Along with training with North Smithfield’s C.J. Dandeneau, a Pittsburgh Pirate farm hand, at All About Sports in North Smithfield, Wright is also working out at home along with throwing with his brother, an Army recruit who is working his way back from Tommy John surgery last May.
“I’m making sure I do my rotator cuff and back exercises to keep my arm strong,”
Wright said. “I’m also doing my regular lifting, like various squats, lunges and dead lifts if possible. The upper-body stuff is more maintenance at the moment, I’m not trying to gain muscle. Also doing some core stuff as well to remain strong.”
When Wright returns to the Giants, he will do so as a valuable arm in the team’s minor-league system system. Wright was a three-year standout at Bryant University but it was during his junior season with the Bulldogs when he emerged as a hot commodity in the eyes of pro scouts.
Prior to the 2019 MLB Draft, Wright he developed into one of the best closers in the nation while also playing elite-level defense at first base.
After throwing 28 unspectacular innings in his first two college seasons in Smithfield, Wright was dominant in 34.1 innings of relief as a junior. The former Cumberland High All-Stater struck out 64 batters for a ridiculous strikeouts-per-nine-innings rate of 16.78. He produced an ERA of 2.36, which led him to being drafted in the 12th round – pick No. 356 overall – by the Giants last June.
In eight appearances with the AZL Giants Black club that competed in the Arizona Rookie League, Wright made five starts and had a 2.03 ERA in 13.1 innings. The move to the rotation didn’t impact Wright, but not playing every inning of every game was something he had to get used to after rarely sitting on the bench at Cumberland and Bryant.
“Last season was a big change for me because I got taken from being a closer who played every inning and was in the game every single day into a starter who doesn’t play every day, so it was a little different,” Wright said. “It was different and took some adjusting because I was not used to that at all. I had to get a feel for that, but I’m in a good spot right now. I worked hard in the off-season to be as ready for the season. When I went [to camp], they told me I looked great.”
Wright arrived at spring training last month with the mindset that he was going to be a starter this season for either the short-season Salem-Keizer Volcanoes or the Single-A Augusta Green Jackets. The goal this season is to develop a reliable third pitch to go along with his high spinrate fastball and solid curveball. Wright said he’s working on a change-up, but he might end up incorporating the pitch made famous by Roger Clemens.
“I was a fastball-curveball guy all of last year, but I worked on a change-up and I’m making strides with it,” Wright said. “It’s still not great, but it doesn’t have to be because it’s not going to happen overnight. I’m striving for a third pitch. It might even be a [split-finger fastball] instead of a change because of the way I release the ball. I’m just going to take it as it comes because our pitching coaches are great and know what they’re talking about.”
When Wright starts the 2020 season, he will do so with just 75.2 collegiate and professional innings on his arm, which is less than former Prout star Mason Feole threw in each of his first two seasons at Connecticut before having Tommy John surgery last season. Feole is now in the San Diego Padres’ farm system.
The Giants are excited by Wright’s potential as a starter, but if it doesn’t work, the talented lefty can go back to the bullpen and become a reliable arm late in games.
“It’s exciting because nobody really knows what I’m going to be as a pitcher because I haven’t done it that much,” Wright said. “I’m excited to go out there and turn some heads. I was told that I’m going to have the opportunity to start right away.
“They said if starting doesn’t work out, I can go right back into the bullpen and do what I’ve been doing for the last couple of years. They said it was a no-consequence situation if I tried to start. My make-up as a pitcher – I’m a lefty and I don’t throw 99 miles per hour – lends me to being a starter.”