Last week the New York Mets announced that their captain in third baseman David Wright would miss 6-8 weeks due to a herniated disk in his neck. Wright is 33-years of age and the herniated disk adds to a laundry list of injuries that he has had to deal with in past few years. In 2009, Wright suffered a concussion when he was hit in the head by San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Matt Cain. In 2011, a stress fracture in Wright’s back forced him to miss 60 games. In 2013, a hamstring injury was added was added to Wright’s growing list of ailments and he missed 50 games. In April 2015, Wright suffered another hamstring injury, and while he was rehabbing, he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis. Wright would only appear in 38 games for the Mets in the regular season. But Wright would return to the Mets in late August to help them for the stretch run which resulted in New York winning their first National League Eastern Division Title since 2006. In the postseason, Wright didn’t hit for average, but his presence alone was important for the Mets which included him getting the game-winning hit in Game 1 of the National League Divisional Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. And with the Mets trailing the Kansas City Royals 2-0 in the World Series, it was Wright’s two-run home run in the first inning that propelled New York to its only victory in the series. But the guy that was a heartthrob with the young ladies in the Big Apple upon his arrival in 2004 is now beginning resemble a former baseball star in Gotham in former New York Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly as injuries (especially to the back) are beginning to catch up to him and take their toll.
Like Wright is to the current Mets, Mattingly was to the Yankees in the 1980’s as he was one of the few bright spots on the team during his tenure. With the Yankees, Mattingly was a six-time Major League Baseball All-Star, along with being the American League MVP in 1985. Mattingly joined the Yankees in 1982 which was the year after they won the A.L. Pennant, and he would toil on non-playoff teams throughout the rest of the decade and the early 1990’s as New York failed to make the postseason. The Yankees would finally make the playoffs again in 1995, but at that point Mattingly was a shell of himself which led to his retirement following New York’s elimination to the Seattle Mariners in the American League Divisional Series as his bad back could no longer take the riggers of playing in MLB. Mattingly’s retirement would be a sad one as the following year would see the Yankees win their first World Series Championship since 1978, and the former captain would miss out on it.
Wright spent the majority of his prime years playing on Met teams that weren’t close to contending as the organization’s finances were hampered by the Bernie Madoff scandal. But Wright has always been the good soldier and the face of the Mets franchise through it all. Wright became the de facto spokesperson for the Mets in 2013 when they hosted the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, and he finally got a taste of the Fall Classic last October. But at the age of 33 with a bad neck and back, it will never be the same for Wright and the Mets no matter how much that he attempts to gut it out.
Currently the Mets find themselves two games back of the Washington Nationals for first place in the National League East and the team’s front office is going to give players within the organization such as infielders Matt Reynolds and Wilmer Flores every opportunity to show what they can do at third base before exploring trade options. But a bad back isn’t going to get any better than what it already is for a baseball player that is in his early-to-mid 30s which means that the time for the Metropolitans to begin grooming their next starter at the hot corner should be starting now.
Over the off-season when it became apparent that the Cincinnati Reds were shopping third baseman Todd Frazier, I felt that it would have been prudent for the Mets to at least extend a feeler on acquiring him. Frazier is in the prime of his career, and his acquisition would have allowed the Mets to move Wright to first base as his defensive skills are diminishing due to his bad back. But the Reds would end up trading Frazier to the Chicago White Sox. And with other quality third baseman around Major League Baseball such as Nolan Arenado of the Colorado Rockies and Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays not appearing to be on the trade market, it looks like the Mets will be managing their third base position with spit and glue until Wright returns.
But even if the Mets wanted to bring in another quality third baseman via a trade, they have to deal with the little thing that is Wright’s contract. Wright is under contract with the Mets through 2020, and he is still owed $67 million after this year. And with Wright once again expected to be out the New York lineup for an extended period of time, it won’t be easy to replace his leadership; especially since the Mets allowed second baseman Daniel Murphy to leave in free agency over the winter to the Washington Nationals. The Mets are hopeful that they’ll be able to do the same thing that they did last year when they stayed close enough to the Nationals in the standings until things began to come together for them in late July and early August. However it’s not a guarantee that history will repeat itself, and somebody has to step up now at the hot corner for the Mets, in their lineup, and in the locker room as Wright’s contributions to the club aren’t that easy to replace.
Source: Baseball-reference.com
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