Around this time last year, David Wright was on the DL with a quad injury. He would soon find out that he was suffering from spinal stenosis, a condition which would forever impact his career. It would forever change not just his ability to play in games, but also how he prepares for games.
We’ve seen back issues cause players like Don Mattingly and Lenny Dykstra to retire early in their 30’s. However, as Danny Knobler reports for ESPN.com, Wright is not at that point no matter how frustrating, grueling, and tiresome his pregame routine can be:
“Every day it sucks,” Wright said late Tuesday night. “Every day it sucks getting ready for the game. But I enjoy playing the game. So it’s worth it. You know, it’s no fun doing the preparation for the preparation, but I want to play and give myself the best chance to be healthy, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”
Wright’s “preparation for his preparation” begins five hours before first pitch. Wright needs at least two hours ready just to prepare himself to take batting practice. Everyone one sees what Wright goes through on a daily basis. As his manager, Terry Collins, said, “I know David. He’s fighting it really, really hard.”
Wright is working hard, and he knows he’s doing what’s necessary for him to get out on the field. As he said, “I’m satisfied I’ve put in the work to be able to play, but you’re never satisfied with where you are as a player.”
As a player, Wright is hitting .238/.342/.444 with seven doubles, two homeruns, four RBI, and two stolen bases. Last night, he had the game winning hit against the Reds. Moments like last night is no surprise to Collins, who said, “Great players do unbelievable things when you need them to.”
With that said, both Collins and Wright both acknowledge the captain won’t be available to do it every time he’s needed. As Collins said, “He has to come to me everyday and tell me how he feels.”
Wright does just that as he’s acknowledged his limitations saying, “I know what’s best for me and the team is that I get those occasional days off.” As Wright said to Collins, “I’ve got to make sure I don’t overdo this.”
So far this year, there are no signs that Wright is overdoing anything. He’s taking days off, and he’s doing what is necessary to prepare for each game. It’s part of Wright’s new reality, but as he said, “you’ve got to do what you got to do.”
Thoughts from Joe D.
Before the game last night, I tweeted out the following on Wright after seeing a bunch of hateful tweets and comments being lobbed at Wright soon after the starting lineup was announced.
Surprised to see complaints about David Wright batting 3rd. Remember he's Top 5 in MLB vs LHP for last 8 years with career 1.008 OPS. LGM
— Metsmerized – Joe D (@MetsmerizedJoeD) April 26, 2016
Actually I told a little white lie because honestly I was not surprised. Wright has been getting killed by a minority of vocal Mets fans for the last 5-6 years. Don’t ask me why because I never could understand the hate for one of the best position players in the franchise’s history – but the hatred is real enough.
I think most of it is spearheaded by the media who know just how to rile this vocal minority up. Take for example an article on SNY this morning in which Matthew Cerrone asserts, “with all due respect to last night’s big hit, which was great, he hasn’t looked very good at the plate. He’s been striking out so much and not hitting with much authority. ”
Of course most of that is untrue. For the first two weeks and 11 games of the Mets season, Wright was leading the Mets with a .426 on-base and a .952 OPS. He’s had a tough third week at the plate so far, going 4-for-24 with 13 strikeouts. Wright won’t be the first Met or the last Met to have a bad week.
Wright delivered the game-winning hit last night, perhaps a good sign that he’s ready to go on one of those classic David Wright hot streaks at the plate.
Cerrone also says: “It’s natural to see a decline in production as a player gets older. That’s normal. However, his current dip is drastic.”
Again, that’s not true. Wright batted .289 after returning from the DL last season with a .379 OBP and .814 OPS, hardly a drastic decline in his performance level. His career OBP is actually lower and his OPS+ of 128 last year is not far off from his career 133 OPS+.
Look, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that at age 33 Wright is going to see the typical decline for any player that age. But to already write this season off because of one tough week is pretty outlandish in my opinion. It’s an irrational rush to judgement based on the tiniest of sample sizes and only serves to keep driving the rhetoric that the Wright haters love.
For crying out loud, let’s chill out and stop denigrating Wright at every single turn. And geez what terrible timing for a hit piece after he was one of the heroes in last night’s thrilling comeback victory.
Again, I’m not making any excuses for Wright, it’s obvious the rest of his contract is a risk given his condition. All I’m saying is do we have to pile on and make over-the-top assertions based on a 5 game sample size? Wright’s earned the benefit of the doubt and these constant articles proclaiming that he’s DOA are getting to be a bit much.
