ST. LOUIS – A deal that merited almost no attention at the time now stands as one of the best free-agent signings in Red Sox and even baseball history.
No one cared much when the Red Sox signed Tim Wakefield to a minor-league contract on April 26, 1995, less than a week after he’d been released by the Pirates. Nearly 15 seasons later, that pact represents one of the great value signings of all time. (For a look at where his signing ranks in Red Sox free-agent history, see Wakefield in Perspective.)
Wakefield now has 175 wins with the Red Sox, third most in franchise history behind Roger Clemens and Cy Young (192 apiece). Since the advent of the modern free-agent system in 1976, only one pitcher (Greg Maddux, Braves, 194) has won more games for a team after moving to them as a free agent.
The idea that a team could have signed a player for little more than the league minimum and then gotten 15 years of successful service from him borders on preposterous. Yet that is precisely what has happened for Wakefield in Boston.
All of that raises a pair of questions: Just how was it that Wakefield was available in 1995? And why was it the Red Sox, among the 28 major-league clubs (Tampa Bay and Arizona had not yet been added as expansion teams), that acquired his services?
A GREAT START, A QUICK UNRAVELING
Wakefield was a sensation upon his major-league debut in 1992. He went 8-1 with a 2.15 ERA for the Pirates, finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting (to Eric Karros of the Dodgers and Moises Alou of the Expos) and becoming a key member of the playoff-bound Pirates staff.
In the postseason, Wakefield may have been even better. He had a complete-game victory in Game 3 of the NLCS between the Pirates and Braves, and another nine-inning W in Game 6 to force a winner-take-all seventh game.
“He basically dominated us,” recalled Sox pitcher John Smoltz, who was a member of Atlanta’s rotation that series. “I had to pitch Game 7. I was like, ‘I hope they don’t take him out (of Game 6). I know this guy can probably pitch on no days of rest. I thought they would bring him back. We couldn’t hit him.”
But as meteoric as his rise had been, his fall was perhaps even more sudden. In 1993, Wakefield entered the year as a starter in the Pittsburgh rotation. He went 6-11 with a 5.61 ERA, resulting in a demotion to Double-A, where he was even worse. Wakefield went 3-5 with a 6.95 ERA, then in Triple-A the following year, he suffered through a 5-15 campaign and 5.94 ERA.
“I just kind of lost my confidence. When you go from being celebrated in 92, winning two post-season games for them and carrying them through the NLCS to getting sent to Double-A it’s kind of demoralizing, I guess,” said Wakefield. “Then I had a clean-up surgery (for elbow bone chips) after the end of the ’93 season and I really wasn’t ready by the time spring training started so I went to Triple-A thinking I was only going to be there until I got healthy. I just wasn’t very good.”
The following spring, Wakefield had become almost an afterthought in Pirates camp. He made only one appearance in a major-league game, allowing 10 runs on eight hits against the White Sox. The Pirates released him.
“They have given me every opportunity to do what I could do, and I didn't do it. I think this is the best thing for the organization and the best thing for me,” Wakefield told reporters at the time. “I always said I wanted to finish my career in Pittsburgh. Maybe in my 28th year in the big leagues I can. I hate to leave Pittsburgh, but it's their decision. I have to respect that, and I do.”
For obvious reasons, that moment was a tremendously difficult one for Wakefield. In retrospect, however, the pitcher is able to consider it without any sense of remorse or discomfort.
“I only got to spend a little over a year (in Pittsburgh) as far as service time is concerned. I got to love the city. But not knowing what Boston is like, I’m glad it happened,” Wakefield said. “I
RSS Center
