One of the more overlooked players on the Mets heading into the 2017 season has been the one who’s been on the team the longest: David Wright. Wright has played in just 75 games over the last two seasons, and his play has definitely dipped from what it was during his heyday.
But if he can stay at least somewhat healthy, he will likely give the Mets franchise a moment they’ll never forget this year– regardless of whether the team makes the playoffs or not.
Wright is just 11 home runs away from breaking the Mets’ all-time home run record, which is currently held by Darryl Strawberry with 252 home runs. So it’s pretty likely that Wright will finally break this record, which is the only major quantitative offensive mark he has yet to top (aside from triples and steals). This will definitely be a storyline to watch this year.
Even though Wright’s play dipped last year– he only batted .226– he still managed to hit seven home runs in only 37 games. So there is still some power there evidently, though it remains to be seen if the herniated disc in his neck coupled with the spinal stenosis he already has will hamper this at all.
As far as the home run record goes, Strawberry initially became the record-holder in 1988, breaking a record that was originally set by Dave Kingman. The only other Met to muster up any sort of remote challenge since then was Mike Piazza, who finished his Mets career with 220 home runs in orange and blue (and black).
This is actually the fifth-lowest home run record for any active franchise. The only ones with lower records than the Mets are the Rays (Evan Longoria, 241) Nationals (Ryan Zimmerman, 215), Marlins (Giancarlo Stanton, 208) and the Padres (Nate Colbert, 174).
Behind Wright, the next-highest active Met would be Lucas Duda, who is 11th in Mets history with 108 home runs.
