Before Friday night’s victory against the N.L. best Chicago Cubs, David Wright made himself available to the media pre-game near the Mets’ clubhouse. This was the first time Wright has made public comments since his June 16 surgery to repair a disk rupture in his neck.
A scruffier looking Wright spoke to the media for several minutes about a myriad of topics, including whether or not he feels deep down he’ll be able to play the game again with any sort of impact that fans have grown accustomed to in his 13-year career.
“I’m going to be out for an extended period of time. … But I plan on coming back and being the player that I feel like I’m capable of being. We shall see,” Wright said. (ESPN)
Wright also brought up the fact that he will lose about 5 percent of the range of motion in his neck because he needed fusion in addition to a discectomy.
The surgery Wright went through was performed through his throat, which was apparent by the rather large white bandage Wright was sporting on his throat during the interview.
“I hope that this is correct, but when this heals, it should be as good as new,” Wright said in regards to the surgery.
Wright said that he is still dealing with some soreness and pain from the surgery, however it is getting better by the day, and he’s due to stop taking pain medication by next week.
He has to be careful when he’s around others, as the slightest bump or jolt could have significant repercussions due to the surgery. He noted that he wants to be around the team, but will sit in the bullpen when watching games. He felt the bullpen was safer because if a screaming foul ball came hurling into the Mets’ dugout, he might not be able to scramble out of the way in time. Also, he can’t be near or involved with any team celebrations or dog piles after a walk-off win.
Wright is also working on progressing in his everyday life with little things we normally take for granted, like putting on our shoes and taking leisurely strolls, something that Wright admits he just started doing this past week. Wright must also wear a neck brace when around others, and while riding in a car.
A point I had made several weeks ago about Wright was that this is not just a baseball injury, this is an injury that can have significant repercussions if he and the team do not proceed with caution in terms of how long he should be sidelined for.
“I love the game of baseball. I can’t wait to get back out there. But the most important thing for me now is my health and trying to get my neck healed, because if I go and do something that I’m not supposed to, we’re not talking about baseball. We’re talking about something that’s going to affect me later in life.”
All of this news is in relation to his neck surgery, but lest we forget that Wright was already dealing with spinal stenosis, in which it took hours of treatment and stretching just for him to get ready for that night’s game. Wright said he has thought about how the neck surgery could in fact impact his spinal stenosis moving forward.
“It took me a little longer to get ready for spring training this year because of the back,” Wright said. “Now that I’m immobile for the foreseeable future, it’ll be interesting to see how my back responds to that. And I think it will be interesting to see what it takes to get my back where it was while I was playing.”
Wright wants to be around his teammates, and I applaud him for going through all of this and making every attempt and effort to get back onto the field. Wright’s pure love and passion for the game of baseball is something we can all relate to; whether playing tee-ball or little league, and all the way up the professional ranks, clearly Wright wants to exhaust every possible solution in order to get back onto the field he’s known since he was five-years-old.
“At some point, your body, I would say, gives way,” Wright said. “I think it’s just natural, especially when you play since I was 4 or 5 years old. Of course, there’s wear and tear in my body.
“If you told me, yeah, you’d have to have a neck surgery, you’d have some back issues, hell, I’d do it all over again because I enjoy what I do. And I plan on continuing to enjoy what I do.”
Wright has been keeping up with the team while sidelined, and has spoken to Jose Reyes several times since he re-signed with the Mets last weekend. Wright said he “loved” the signing of Reyes, and that “he’s a very good friend” of his. In relation to what happened with Reyes in the domestic violence incident last October, Wright offered the following on that subject:
“I feel like what he did was awful, terrible,” Wright said. “There’s just no other way around it. With that being said, in my eyes, he’s done what he could do to earn a second chance. If he’s going to be given a second chance, I think this is a good place for it. I think he’s comfortable here. This is home for him. I can’t say it enough: What he did is something that is horrible and should never be done. So I hope that he’s learned his lesson. In everything he said, it seems like he’s acknowledged the great mistake that it was and that he’s not going to let it happen again, and I hope that’s correct.”
When the topic of possibly looking into a more full-time replacement at third, Wright once again said all the right things, and understood if the Mets wanted to go out and either sign a guy like Cuban third baseman Yulieski Gourriel, or trying to trade for one before the trading deadline.
“They’ve got to do what it takes to get this team better and back to the playoffs,” Wright said. “I’m no good on the field right now.”
Beyond this season, Wright is signed for four more years. As much as I would love to see Wright return in some capacity and make it back to the playoffs again, I feel the odds are stacked against him to live out the entirety of his contract. The Mets do have an insurance policy on Wright, and should kick in soon for around 75 percent of his salary this year.
