Mets third baseman David Wright was honored last night by the Arizona Fall League as one of the top 25 all-time players. Wright played for the Peoria Saguaros in 2003 alongside fellow Mets prospects Mike Jacobs, Justin Huber, Matt Watson, Matt Peterson, Tyler Yates and Royce Ring.
The AFL is celebrating it’s silver season by naming the top 25 players in the leagues history. The first 1,000 fans last night were given an oversized Bowman baseball card of Wright and Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel. Mike Piazza was also named to the top 25 team and will be honored later in the season.
Wright was on the field before the game to accept a trophy from AFL director Steve Cobb and to reflect on his time in the AFL as well as talk about his future.
“The biggest thing for me was that this league was a trampoline for me the following year,” Wright said. “I put up good but kind of mediocre years my first couple of years in the Minor Leagues, still kind of getting the hang of things. And I came here, had a really good fall, and it gave me all the confidence in the world, and the next year I was in the big leagues.” Wright told Doug Miller of MLB.com
Wright said that everything is progressing according to plan following surgery for a herniated disk in his back. Soon, he will return to Los Angeles to begin a month of therapy.
Wright also told Miller “I’ll be about six months out of surgery at that point, and that should give me, knock on wood, the green light to have a normal offseason. Assuming that nothing crazy happens between now and a month from now, I should be good to go for Spring Training.”
The Mets have a ton of questions to answer this offseason but they have built strong depth behind Wright with Jose Reyes, Wilmer Flores and T.J. Rivera all capable of playing third base.
