According to Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball, Mets third baseman David Wright will be leaving the team in Cincinnati to travel to Los Angeles to meet with his surgeon, Dr. Robert Watkins, for a regularly scheduled checkup on his surgically repaired neck.
The hope is that after the meeting Wright will be cleared by Dr. Watkins to resume baseball activities, or at the very least, be put on a timetable that would permit him to resume baseball activities in the near future.
At this point, it is presumed Wright will not be able to return this season even if the Mets were able to make it to the postseason.
Wright was only able to play in 37 games before he needed to have a discectomy and cervical fusion surgery. In those 37 games, Wright was able to hit .226/.350/.438 with seven homers and 14 RBI. Until the Mets signed Jose Reyes, he led the team with three stolen bases.
Thoughts from Joe D.
After this season, Wright still has four years and $67 million remaining on his insured contract. The Mets will have some decisions to make this offseason on whether they will move ahead as if Wright will be back and ready to play next season, or proceed as if he won’t be back.
Last offseason, the Mets proceeded with the former and it nearly derailed them as there seemingly was no Plan B in place when Wright went down.
Luckily, after going through a few weeks of internal options at third base, Jose Reyes came along and the Mets quickly scooped him up.
Depending on what the Mets do or don’t do this offseason, the good news is they have Reyes locked in at $500K next season. So essentially, it gives the Mets a solid Plan B for ’17 if Wright goes down again or is unable to begin the season on time.
