The Edge of Seventeen: David Wright

[Edgy MD]

I'm David Wright. You probably know me. I look back on those Schaefer archives and I think, damn, me and baseball were once a pretty hot couple.

But I look at my games-played totals of late, and I can only conclude we're drifting apart. Thirty-seven games last year, thirty-eight the year before that. Even three seasons back, when I played 134 games, it was with the worst line of my career.

I connect eras at this point. I played with Mike Piazza, after all, and God willing, some time soon, I'll play with Amed Rosario. But it's not my team anymore. Thor and his allies are the story of this team, and I'm a footnote. Now, with Gabriel Ynoa gone, I'm even the last Met to get an EOS thread. I get it. I'm your captain, I'm your captain, though I'm feeling mighty sick.

There are many great battles ahead. My place in them is hardly clear. There's another starting thirdbaseman on the team, maybe two, and a lot of coming infielders looking to be a long-term fixture. Meanwhile, I work to make my back workable. Nobody but me will ever wear #5 again on the field for this team. The question, I guess, before us is ... will I?

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[Benjamin Grimm]

He may play again, but I don't think he'll ever be a key contributor again.

[Centerfield]

I agree.

Sees the field this year. Plays somewhere between 30-50 games. Even has a few cool moments. We will all root for him, but ultimately his body will just not cooperate.

Retires at the end of the season. A handful of HR's short of Straw's record.

[seawolf17]

Gets 272 AB, hits eleven home runs, the eleventh one coming in the bottom of the 13th of the pennant-clincher in September against the Braves.

[MFS62]

Even if he were to announce his post season retirement before he joins the active roster, I doubt he'd get a year long fellatiation like that MFY infielder got. So he'll make an attempt to play some minor league games, then announce his retirement in a very professional manner. He'll announce some sort of long term deal with the club so he can stay with the organization in an off field capacity.

Later

[Edgy MD]

I have this slight, but unsheddable, lingering suspicion that the spinal stenosis was a misdiagnosis of the later-discovered herniated disc. If that's so, then good, on one hand, if he has one problem instead of two. But bad, if he's done (and continues to do?) treatment and rehabilitation to fight the former when the latter is the real problem. And perhaps the latter has been or is being aggravated by the treatment for the former.

I'm not a doctor, but yadda, yadda, yadda.

[metirish]

Expecting nothing from him .....

[Frayed Knot]

All I know is that I couldn't stretch my legs into those positions and I don't have either spinal stenosis or fused discs.

[Ceetar]

On and off, managed heavily. But does manage, somehow, 78 games. And they're _good_. This is a Hall of Fame caliber player, even if he'll almost definitely not have the longevity needed now.

.303/.410/.520 139 wRC+ 2.9 fWAR

He gets 48 of the games before the break, and gets named to the All-Star Game again. Announces Molly's second pregnancy during the ASG break.

15 HR. 15 Doubles. Is active for the postseason. Wins the World Series MVP, helped by getting to DH the final three games. Has the go-ahead HR in the 5th game. He misses the parade for the birth of his son, Cliff.

[ashie62]

Expect nothing and hope he has a healthy post baseball life. He can start a new career with resources most dont have.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Ceetar wrote: Announces Molly's second pregnancy during the ASG break.

Second pregnancy? I didn't know he was a dad.

[Edgy MD]

His first child was and is Olivia Shea Wright, born July 23, 2016.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I guess I missed that! I was traveling in New England at the time and not getting many news updates.

Congratulations! Is her middle name a tribute to Chipper Jones' kid?

[Guest d'Kong76]

Sadly, nothing much Metly in 2017. I hope he retires, and the number
gets retired in 2018.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Hope to see him again cuz I like David Wright. Hard to say this but seems like the last thing the Mets need is an unreliable RH hitting infielder.

5-26 270/330/410, 200 PA, I don't when or how

[Edgy MD]

Hey man, that was 60 threads by me, all with a compelling first-person narrative and handsomely arrayed eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was and stuff.

Wright gets back on the field. His best remaining asset is his on-base tool. .255 / .378 / .431 // .809. 341 plate appearances.

[Edgy MD]

Fake David Wright wrote: Nobody but me will ever wear #5 again on the field for this team. The question, I guess, before us is ... will I?

Looks like somebubby spoke a day too soon.

[tweet]

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[Edgy MD]

Starting at DH tonight for St. Lucie.

You read it here first.

[nymr83]

I'm actually surprised the Mets would risk the insurance money by letting him play. all it takes is one "team doctor" related to Jeff Wilpon who insists he isn't healthy enough yet...

[Edgy MD]

Nobody should know better than the Wilpons, but a conspiracy of fraud with tens of millions of dollars on the line is very serious business.

Presumably, one has to be acting in good faith to collect on a high-value insurance policy.

[Edgy MD]

Wright surprisingly played third today. In the second, he successfully fielded his first grounder, throwing out Palm Beach second baseman Edmundo Sosa. Two batters later, he made his first error, but it was fielding. In the fifth inning, he successfully corralled a popup, and his day was over defensively as Colby Woodmansee came on for him in the sixth.

Offensively, he got his first hit of the year, going 1-3 with two strikeouts, one of which featured strike three getting away from the catcher and Wright getting to first.