19 years ago today, the New York Mets drafted an 18-year-old from Hickory High School in Chesapeake, Virginia by the name of David Wright. Little did they know at the time, they were getting the eventual best position player in franchise history with the 38th overall pick.
Wright grew up a Mets fan having been only a short distance from their Triple-A affiliate in Norfolk. Here’s what Baseball America had to say about Wright heading into the draft:
Wright has been compared to Michael Cuddyer, a fellow Tidewater product who was the ninth overall pick in the 1997 draft. Both have excellent makeup and work ethic, qualities that endear them to scouts. Their tools are similar, though Wright swings the bat a little better and has better overall mechanics at this age. If Wright were a little bigger and projected better, he’d be a candidate for the first 10 picks. Few players in the country swing the bat as well. Wright has developed more extension with his swing, giving him more power, but he still projects just 20 home runs a year in the big leagues. That’s a marginal output by today’s third-base standards, though he has settled in nicely at the position. He’s at the heart of a strong Georgia Tech recruiting class. College won’t be an issue if he’s drafted in the first 30-50 picks, where he’s projected.
Before we get into the awesomeness of Captain America, let’s dig into how the Mets ended up with the compensatory pick. It all starts with everyone’s favorite Met, Bobby Bonilla.
The Mets originally signed Bonilla in 1991 and he would go on to have three and half solid years with the Mets including two All-Star appearances before he was traded in 1995 to the Orioles. The Mets decided to require Bonilla in November of 1998 when they traded pitcher Mel Rojas to the Dodgers for Bobby.
Bonilla was a disaster in 1999 with the Mets, posting a .579 OPS in only 60 games. Bonilla was under contract with the Mets through the 2000 season for $5.9 million, but the team needed to add pitching to a contending team and ownership wanted financial wiggle room.
Bonilla and his agent offered the Mets a deal that meant they wouldn’t have to pay him his $5.9 million salary for 2000 if they agreed to defer the money. The original $5.9 million would turn into $29.8 million in deferred payments of $1.19 million from 2011 through 2035. Fred Wilpon was okay with paying Bonilla the 8% interest because he believed he was going to make more in his investments with Bernie Madoff.
The financial flexibility allowed the Mets to acquire left-hander starter Mike Hampton from the Houston Astros. Hampton would post a 3.14 ERA in 2000, win the Silver Slugger award, and was named the NLCS MVP.
After the 2000 season, Hampton was in search of a bigger payday and the Rockies gave him that. With the Rockies signing Hampton to an eight-year, $121 million deal, the Mets received a compensation pick in the 2001 draft. That pick was used for David Wright.
Wright hit from the start as a pro, the youngster slashed .300/.391/.458 in 36 games for the rookie level Kingsport Mets. The third baseman struggled a bit in 2002 when his slash line dropped to .266/.367/.401 with the Class-A Capital City Bombers.
The 2003 season would be an important one for Wright, as he hit .270/.369/.459 with 39 doubles, 11 home runs, 75 RBIs, and 19 stolen bases for the St. Lucie Mets. He would play in the Arizona Fall League too as he looked to be closing in on the major leagues.
Wright started out like a ball of fire in 2004 with a 1.086 OPS in 60 games for the Double-A Binghamton Mets. It was a quick stop for Wright in Triple-A Norfolk – .967 OPS in 31 games – before he was promoted to the big leagues in July of 2004.
The Virginia native made his Major League debut on July 21, 2004 against the Expos:
- Jose Reyes – 2B
- Kazuo Matsui – SS
- Ty Wigginton – 1B
- Cliff Floyd – LF
- Richard Hidalgo – RF
- Mike Cameron – CF
- David Wright – 3B
- Vance Wilson – C
- Jae Weong Seo – P
All Wright did was hit .293/.332/.525 with 14 home runs in 69 games for the Mets in 2004.
Wright would then finish 19th in MVP voting during his sophomore season, as the Mets went 83-79 after a 91-loss season in 2005. He had 42 doubles, 27 home runs, 102 RBIs, 17 stolen bases and only struck out 113 times compared to 72 walks. But the highlight from his 2005 season was this ridiculous play on August 9:
Another strong year from Wright in 2006 helped lead him to his first All-Star appearance and the Mets to a National League East crown. His OPS was .912 for the second straight season and he finished ninth in the MVP voting.
Wright had the best season of his career in 2007, when he hit .325/.416/.546 with 42 doubles, 30 home runs, 107 RBI, 34 stolen bases, posted 8.3 bWAR, won his first Gold Glove, his first Silver Slugger and finished fourth in MVP voting.
He would follow that season up with another All-Star appearance, Gold Glove and Silver Slugger in 2008 while setting a career high with 33 home runs and 124 RBI.
Wright was in the midst of another All-Star campaign in 2009, when San Francisco Giants starter Matt Cain drilled him in the head on August 15. He was diagnosed with a concussion and put on the disabled list for the first time in his career. Wright returned to play 29 games that season, but wasn’t the same guy hitting only .239/.289/.367 with 35 strikeouts.
The resilient Wright bounced back in 2010 with his fifth straight All-Star appearance, posted a 131 OPS+, and finished with at least 100 RBI for the fifth time in his career.
On May 10, 2011, Wright and Ike Davis collided trying to catch a sort pop-up in the in front of the pitchers mound. A week later Wright was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his back that was believed to have happened a month earlier when he dove to tag Carlos Lee of the Houston Astros. Wright would be on the DL for nearly two months and posted a then career-worst .771 OPS.
Again, Wright returned to form in 2012, hitting .306/.391/.492 with 41 doubles, 21 home runs and 93 runs batted in. He would make his sixth All-Star appearance and finish sixth in MVP voting. On September 26, 2012, Wright surpassed Ed Kranepool as Mets all-time leader in base hits with an infield single.
In November of 2012, Wright signed a seven-year contract extension worth $138 million to stay with the Mets. Four months later his was named just the fourth Captain in franchise history.
Before the regular season started in 2013, Wright manned third base for the United States in the World Baseball Classic. He earned the name Captain America with a multitude of clutch hits and driving in ten runs in four games.
He would play in only 112 games in 2013 for the Mets, but did hit .307/.390/.514 and make his seventh (and final) All-Star appearance.
The Captain battled through a shoulder injury in 2014 to play in 134 mostly unproductive games, in which he had a career low .698 OPS.
Wright would play in eight games to start the 2015 season before hitting the disabled list with a strained right hamstring. Then on April 23, 2015, Mets fans were dismayed when it was announced that Wright was diagnosed with spinal stenosis.
On August 24, 2015, Wright made his return to the lineup and surprised with a long home run against the Phillies in his first at-bat.
Wright would hit a respectable .277/.381/.437 in the final 30 regular games of the 2015 as the Mets won the National League East and went on to the World Series. In the Mets first World Series game at Citi Field, Wright would lead them to a 9-3 win with a home run and four RBIs.
The following season, Wright was hit with another massive blow, when he found he needed surgery to repair a herniated disk in his neck. He would play a career-low 37 games and hit just .226/.350/.438.
After rehabbing his neck, Wright would then find out he had a shoulder impingement in February of 2017. Sadly, Wright needed surgery to repair his rotator cuff and he would not play at all in 2017.
It was more of the same in 2018 for Wright as he continued to deal with injuries. Despite not having played in the big leagues since early in 2016, Wright kept prepping himself to play in 2018 and went on rehab assignments with the St. Lucie Mets and Las Vegas 51s.
On September 13, 2018, the Mets announced that David Wright would be activated for the last weekend of the season to make his final appearance as a professional baseball player.
Wright played in his final game on September 29, 2018. He walked in his first plate appearance of the game and then popped out in his final at-bat. He was taken out in the top of the fifth inning after running out to third base one last time. The entire game was added to YouTube on Thursday.
David Wright has decided to stay in the game of baseball as a special assistant in the Mets front office.
The Mets fan would finish his career as the teams offensive leader in WAR (49.2), Hits (1777), doubles (390), runs (949), walks (762), and extra base hits (658). He finished with the legacy of being the best position player in franchise history.
