Welcome Jamey Wright

The Cleveland Indians landed right-handed reliever Jamey Wright to a minor league contract today. Wright had spent most of his first ten years, making 246 starts for Colorado, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City and Colorado. The Rockies would begin his transformation to a reliever. His next team, the Giants, continued his trend towards a reliever, followed by the Rangers, who moved him to full-time relief in his second year with the team in 2008. He would return to the Royals last season, and had a moderately successful year, going 3-5 with a 4.33 ERA in 65 games and 79 innings. Overall, Wright has made 174 relief appearances.

Wright is nothing serious, but has a nice upside in this bullpen. Out of necessity, Wright was used in short-inning situations, but is best suited to long relief. I'm not sure if this guy is going to make the team, but it sure won't hurt to have him compete. He's always walked too many batters, but his live arm has always been tantalizing. The curiosity with Wright is that he truly has one of the better curveballs in the game. His fastball has a lot of movement, usually tailing away and sinking. His offspeed stuff does the same. He uses a cutter against lefties, but it tends to hang a bit.

It's another good move for the Indians, who likely will grab a couple of more bargains off the bin before it's all said and done.