Since being diagnosed with spinal stenosis in 2015, it’s been a battle for David Wright to stay on the field. That year and 2016, he combined to play just 75. He did not appear in a game this past year.

Just this past year, Wright has also underwent disk fusion surgery, rotator cuff surgery and a laminotomy procedure in an effort to get back on the field. However, his future remains just as uncertain as ever.

However, the longtime Mets third baseman plans to head down to Port St. Lucie in two weeks where the team will assess him, according to Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. He has yet to begin any type of baseball activity.

“The surgeries are obviously serious stuff, but it just kind of plays with your mind mentally, where you don’t know how your body’s going to hold up,” Wright said. “You don’t know how you’re going to feel a month from now. You don’t know how you’re going to feel a couple weeks from now. You’re hoping that it continues to get better, but you just don’t know.

“Everything is a concern for me. I haven’t progressed to the point where I’ll know how it feels to throw a baseball until we get closer to spring. I certainly don’t know how the back is going to hold up.”

In his column, Davidoff touches upon two important nuggets surrounding Wright going into the 2018 season.

Wright currently has a spot on the 40-man roster, but as of Feb. 14, the team could place him on the 60-day disabled list, freeing up a roster spot. They can then theoretically keep him there until November roles around again when they have to make Rule 5 decisions.

Feb. 14 is less than two weeks from now, and with the free agent market as slow as it has been, this could be crucial in the Mets adding another arm. Potentially a starter or even another lefty reliever. Remember, they lost Josh Smoker, so the only southpaw on the 40-man currently is Jerry Blevins.

If he doesn’t play again this year and November comes, the Mets will have a decision to make. However, it seems unlikely that they will release him because that would cancel their insurance policy on him. Since July, 2016, that policy has paid 75 percent of his salary. Davidoff points out that they would only be on the hook to pay him $5 million of his $20 million salary for this year.

“After this season, Wright will be due $15 million in 2019 and $12 million in 2020,” Davidoff writes. “The insurance carrier, which would be covering $20.25 million of that through the course of the contract, could agree on a lesser, upfront payment — a ballpark guesstimate would be $15 million — that would get the deal off its books and give the Mets a short-term boost in return for the long-term hit.”

It’s going to be an uphill climb for Wright to get back on the field, and if he doesn’t play again this year, there will surely be decisions the slugger and team will have to make. However, since the team isn’t paying his full salary anyway, we might find ourselves here yet again 365 days from now.

To read the rest of Davidoff’s column which is strongly encouraged, click here.