Mets GM Sandy Alderson told reporters during the Winter Meetings on Monday that team captain David Wright will be the main third baseman, despite the infield depth and Wright coming off another injury-plagued season.
Wright is on track to start baseball activities later this month.
“I think that we’re very hopeful he’s gonna be able to come back and be productive,” said Alderson. “I think we have to be realistic about how many games we can expect him to perform.”
Wright will turn 34 this month. He only played in 37 games in 2016 and had season-ending neck surgery in June. That is after playing in 38 games in 2015 while dealing with chronic lumbar spinal stenosis.
With the depth and flexibility of the Mets infield, the team can manage Wright’s playing time to make sure he can stay healthy over the course of the 2017 season.
“The nice thing is that we’ve probably got as much flexibility in our projected roster of infielders now than we’ve ever had,” Alderson said. “We want him to come back and there’s definitely an opening for him to do that. At the same time, if you look around with what we have – especially after Neil Walker accepted the qualifying offer – we have a lot of flexibility.”
