Cincinnati Reds 2014 Season Review: Ryan Wright

After a solid, but unspectacular 2013 season in Bakersfield Ryan Wright would return to Bakersfield for the 2014 season. The second baseman got things off to a quick start as he went 3-5 on opening night with a double, run scored and an RBI. Two days later he would have another 3-5 game against Modesto. To the midpoint of April he was hitting .328 but would hit a slump in San Jose where he went 0-10 in the series that would drag down his numbers, but he would finish strong. He would have a 5-game hitting streak to end the month and drive in seven runs in that span.  Wright would hit .274/.306/.443 in April with five steals in just as many attempts.

When May rolled around Wright picked things up where he left them in April, riding a hot bat as he continued his hitting streak to 12-games. The seven games in May that extended the streak saw him hit .429 and slug .600. After his hitting streak came to an end on the 9th against Visalia he picked right back up and went on to hit .325/.368/.513 through the end of the month as he torched his way through May with a line of .350/.379/.530. He also added two steals in as many attempts to push his season total to seven.

June began with two games against High Desert but then Wright would miss the next 10 days before returning and going 3-8 for the Blaze against Modesto on the 13th and 14th. Those would be his last days with the Bakersfield franchise as he ended the first half with them and was then promoted to Pensacola. After sitting for five days due to the All-Star break Wright got back into action and things didn’t begin well with the Blue Wahoos as he went 0-17 in his first four games. He would break out of the slump against Chattanooga on the first road trip since his promotion by going 2-4 with a double and a run. Once things got rolling in Chattanooga he closed out June strong by hitting .375/.423/.708 in the final seven games of the month. The slump to start his Double-A career put a damper on his overall June as he hit .237/.286/.475 on the month.

June ended with a modest 4-game hitting streak and to start July it was extended to six before coming to an end. Over the next eight games he would hit .324  but would then go into an extended slump. In the final 17 games of the month Wright would hit .210/.234/.290. He would have more games without a hit than with one, 10-7. For the month he would hit .245/.263/.327 with just three walks in 115 plate appearances to go along with 18 strikeouts.

His slump would continue into August. He would go 1-2 with two walks and a hit-by-pitch on August 4th. Over the next 12 games he would only reach base twice, both singles. Things would get slightly better from there, but not by much. In the final eight games of the year he would hit .207 and draw three walks before the season would come to an end. August turned out to be the worst month of his career as he hit .132/.221/.147.

Overview

The 2014 season for Ryan Wright was basically a tale of two seasons. April through June were quite good as he posted an .818 OPS and struck out just 42 times in 298 plate appearances. July and August saw the second baseman hit just .202 with a .505 OPS while striking out 41 times in 194 plate appearances as his strikeout total was nearly identical despite 104 fewer trips to the plate. The Double-A level provided a much more difficult step for Wright to handle than the Advanced-A level did. The bright side is that he didn’t let the offensive struggles carry over to the defensive side of things as he had just six errors all season long and posted a .985 fielding percentage.

To view more 2014 Season Review articles, click here.

Season Stats