I read that David Wright is once again not cleared for baseball activity.
The Mets have played 85 games, and David has appeared in eight.
Let’s be pollyanna and say that next week he gets cleared for baseball activity. I’ll play fast and loose with the math here, but a week from now they will have played 89 games.
David gets that clearance and heads off to Florida where he goes from zero to full major league ready in what – want to call it three weeks? That’s (fast and loose) 20 more games.
David would make his very welcome return to Queens in Game 110 or so. Which means at the very best the Mets would get their leader and centerpiece for 58 games this season. Wow that hurts.
As Jason Fry and I say on the podcast nearly every week we want David Wright, the man (and I mean a human not The Man) to be OK. We want the man to be healthy. Once there, yeah of course we want David Wright the baseball player to show up and hand in .300 30 and 100.
Right now this morning, it’s harder and harder to imagine that. Which means what to the franchise?
Will this scare the Wilpons off from big contracts? For the record, I was in favor of this deal, factoring in everything David means including the 4pm schmoozing with VIPs that you guys don’t see.
Can David be “Derek Jeter” if he isn’t on the field? Or does he become “John Franco”, a former captain, loved, good citizen, always happy to see him, but at the Tom Seaver level?
Does David shut it down and show up in the spring? Would there really be a Mets playoff run without David Wright? That’s weird to think about.
What if he can’t come back, or does come back at a reduced level? There are five years left on the contract. Can the Mets carry a diminished David Wright for five seasons? What does that do to the roster? Isn’t that just kind if weird?
I know I’m deep off in the land of What If, but this is what I think about. Again, I want David Wright, the man, to be healthy. The rest of this is secondary.
Thoughts?