It’s no secret that New York Mets third baseman David Wright has had difficulty staying on the baseball field for four of the last five seasons, each of which he has had a significant injury that has taken him away from the game. Two years ago, he broke a bone in his back, last season it was his shoulder that he hurt early on in the season and tried to play it out until he got shut down, and now this season his hamstring took him out but his back issues continued, which has kept him out as long as it has.
Every time Wright tries to get back to baseball activities there have been more setbacks, and on Saturday he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, which is the same injury that forced former center fielder Lenny Dykstra to retire at 35 years old. Cooper Manning, Peyton and Eli’s brother who was a very talented wide receiver, had to quit football after high school because of it as well. This was definitely not the news that Wright, Mets fans, or baseball fans in general wanted to hear. He is widely known as “Captain America” for being both the captain of the United States’ Olympic team, and of the New York Mets. He is a true ambassador of the game and somebody that the younger players should strive to model after.
On the field, he’s had a great career as well. In 12 seasons, this being considered his twelfth, the 32 year old has hit .298/377/.494 with 1,743 hits, 231 home runs and has driven in 943 runs. There was a time early on in his career, from 2005 to 2010, when he looked like he was going to be a consistent MVP type player. He was consistently a .300 or higher average hitter, averaged approximately 30 home runs, and drove in around 100 runs. There was one year in there where his numbers dropped, but his average was still high.
Wright’s a seven time all star, a two time gold glove winner, a two time silver slugger award winner, a member of the 30-30 club, and a leader of many of the New York Mets’ franchise records when it comes to hitting. His presence in itself makes a huge difference in their clubhouse. It would be a shame for a great career to end at such an early age, but spinal stenosis is extremely dangerous, and even if Wright were to try to come back, and I believe that he will, how limited will be be? He certainly can’t or shouldn’t play third base anymore.
Figures, right? The Mets’ issues were trying to build a team around David Wright, and then when they have a team that can win, this kind of news pops up. This franchise just can not catch a break. They’re now 24-21 in second place in the National League East, and are just coming off of a sweep at the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates on the road.
Could it be time for this team to start preparing for time after Wright? He’s also under contract until 2020 that is worth 122 million dollars over seven years. It isn’t that I don’t believe that he can come back or that he doesn’t want to come back and produce to the level that he can, it’s that for his own health I don’t think that he should continue pushing as hard as he has.
It is definitely a difficult time in Queens, New York.
This is one of his better moments as a Met at Turner Field against the greatest closer in the Major Leagues:
