New Player Spotlight: RHP, Kyle Wright – Farm to Fountains

The Kansas City Royals kicked off the offseason with a couple of trades. One of the first was acquiring right-handed pitcher Kyle Wright from the Atlanta Braves for right-handed pitcher Jackson Kowar. If you’re a Royals fan, you know most of the back story behind Kowar. But, who is Kyle Wright, and why should we be excited? It is worth mentioning at the top that Kyle Wright is out with an injury. He is expected to miss the entire 2024 as he underwent shoulder surgery in October for a torn right capsule. Wright battled injuries most of last year and was trying to make his way back most of 2023. 

Regardless of the injury, acquiring Wright is still very intriguing for the Kansas City Royals. He has shown already that he can pitch at the big league level. In 2022, he went 21-5 with a 3.19 ERA and 1.159 WHIP. Wright struck out 174 batters in 180.1 innings pitched. That led to him being voted 10th in the Cy Young Award race. Usually, I’d go into a deep dive on statistics to showcase the player, but given he missed most of the year with an injury and how cool his human side story is, I wanted to talk about Wright more as a person.

Kyle Wright’s confidence started to build when he had the opportunity to appear in the 2021 World Series. Then with the Atlanta Braves, he hadn’t pitched in the NLDS or NLCS. He was called upon to throw in relief on multiple occasions that series. Over 5.2 innings he allowed five hits, one run, and struck out six. The confidence he showed on the mound in the 2021 World Series was something that Wright had never shown. 

The new Kyle Wright that came about in the 2021 World Series came from a lot of hard work he put in on both the mental and physical side of the game. He was vocal about his struggles with the mental aspects of the game and sought out a mental performance coach who helped him get to his elite levels. 

The journey to get there wasn’t always easy. Wright spent all of 2018-2021 going up and down between AAA and the major leagues. Those confidence issues mentioned earlier were part of the reasons he kept finding struggles at the big league level. Everyone knew the elite stuff that had him being selected 5th overall in the 2017 draft was there, it was just a matter of him eventually finding it like he did. 

Wright is now having to work through another battle of injuries. The Royals decided to acquire him for a first-rounder they had in Jackson Kowar (the Braves eventually traded him to the Seattle Mariners shortly after), who also struggled to find his way in the major leagues. It was worth it to them to let him recover in Kansas City to see if he could find his way again in 2025. 

While Royals fans can temper their expectations for 2024, if Wright can find even an ounce of what he did in 2022, they could have a very special rotation on their hands. He will enter his age 29 season and has a ton of experience with pushing through adversity. If any player can find his way back and succeed at the major league level again, it is Kyle Wright. 

What might seem like a small transaction now could have dividends down the line. Of course there always is a ton of risk with injured players, but the Royals did seem to find a gem in Cole Ragans. Regardless of the outcome Wright has in Kansas City, these are the types of moves you want to see your team make, as they can be game-changers for a small market team.