Major League Baseball’s final four has a familiar name tied to all of it: Jamey Wright.
After the Cleveland Guardians knocked out the Chicago White Sox on Saturday night to finish off the American League Division Series, the postseason bracket was locked in. Cleveland is set to face the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS starting Monday, while the Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers open the National League Championship Series on Sunday night.
Wright is the only player who has suited up for all four clubs. He spent 19 seasons in the majors, beginning as a starter before shifting into relief, and logged time with 10 different teams. One of the more unusual parts of his career was the stretch in which he kept making teams as a non-roster invitee, doing it eight straight times, including with the Dodgers in 2012.
His second stint with Los Angeles came on a guaranteed deal in 2014, which ended that run of minor league contracts.
Wright also became known for a gray Oklahoma Sooners T-shirt he wore to workouts for years, day after day, until the stitching finally gave out. “It’s kind of a proud thing.
For so many years, I put it on right when I got to the ballpark every day. That was my workout shirt, and there was a lot of pregame workouts,” Wright recalled in 2021.
“It’s been washed thousands of times. It’s not too much to look at, but it’s got some serious sentimental value to me.”
He tried to keep going with the Dodgers in 2016 after sitting out the 2015 season, returning once again as a non-roster invitee. At 41, he didn’t make the club and retired on the final day of spring training in Arizona. That camp was Dave Roberts’ first as Dodgers manager, and Wright’s comments that day aged well.
“I’ll be sad that I don’t get to play for him this year, because he is a class act,” Wright said of Roberts in March 2016. “I’ve known since the first day he addressed this team they’ve got something to look forward to this summer in LA because he’s as good as they get.”
Roberts has since built a decorated run in Los Angeles, now in his 11th season as Dodgers manager, with five pennants and three World Series titles already on his resume. He also ranks second in MLB history with 72 postseason wins.
Five years after Wright retired, when he was serving as pitching coach for Triple-A Oklahoma City, he revealed that Roberts had tried to give him a proper sendoff. After learning Wright didn’t make the 2016 team, Roberts offered to fly Wright and his family to the Freeway Series for one last major league ballpark experience, but Wright turned it down.
Roberts remembered Wright’s praise when it was brought back up in 2021.
“That means a lot. That’s as good a compliment as you can get from somebody I really respect,” Roberts said this week when reminded of Wright’s words from five years ago.
“I felt a little slighted because I didn’t get a chance to spend more time with him. I wish we had a chance to play together.
We competed against each other many times.
“I remember a front-door cutter that he threw, and it hit me right in the knee one time. I haven’t forgotten that one. I guess with the compliment, we’re even.”
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