The Mets announced today that they’ve formally reinstated team captain David Wright from the disabled list. Their plans were made clear earlier this month when announcing that Wright would return for the season’s final homestand and make one start (this coming Saturday), but today’s announcement makes it official that Wright is an active Major League player for the first time in more than two calendar years.
The final six games of the season, particularly Saturday’s contest, promise to bring out plenty of emotional moments in Queens, as Mets fans bid farewell to arguably the greatest player in franchise history. Wright’s career has been tragically cut short by a series of injuries, beginning with a spinal stenosis diagnosis in 2016 that preceded eventual neck and shoulder surgeries. In a tearful press conference addressing his future earlier this month, the venerable third baseman acknowledged that playing baseball had become “debilitating” for him and that doctors simply could not forecast his condition improving to the point where he could continue his playing career.
Tickets quickly sold out for the final start of Wright’s career, so he’ll have the opportunity to soak in moment in front of what should be a capacity crowd at Citi Field. The franchise icon and World Baseball Classic hero will head into his final weekend as a Major Leaguer with a career .296/.376/.491 batting line, 242 home runs, 196 stolen bases, 390 doubles, 26 triples, 949 runs scored and 970 runs batted in.
Wright, now 35 years of age, won’t formally retire following the season, and he’ll continue to be paid out the remaining $27MM on his contract while spending the 2019-20 seasons on the 60-day disabled list. The Mets’ insurance policy on his contract reportedly covers 75 percent of his salary, so they’ll only owe him a combined $6.75MM out of pocket over the life of those two seasons.
One of the most respected players in the game. Happy to see him be able to go out in front of his home fans and family. A lot of respect from this Yankee fan.
You related to John or Charles?
You related to Chris?
What is this, ancestry.com?
You related to Rachael?
are you in relation to donald?
I wish
owes him money
Why did this comment get down votes? I guess people don’t like when respect is given to a player on another team. How dare respect be given where respect is due!!
In this day and age ? Not surprising at all.
Down votes because some clowns think Captain America should give all his money back
Playing a bit of MlbTheShow just so I can play as Wright one more time. All the best to him in his future endeavors. Was always a class act and a player who brought my fantasy teams success. Here is to you’re retirement Captain!
Now let’s hope he gets some sort of job in the organization. He could be a very helpful teacher to the young guys.
Totally agree. His even temperament and plate discipline could be a valuable lesson to some of the younger players (cough… cough… Rossario)
Wright will certainly stay in the organization. Its not even questionable.
He might be able to land a job on the medical staff….he has seen enough to be a Doctor himself….lol
Hate the Mets, but I’ve always admired Wright. Sad to see his career get cut short. I applaud him and the Mets for making this happen. A real class act. I’ll be sure to tune in to these last few games.
Agreed, Wright is/was a hard nosed player who never took off for an plate appearance, dove for grounders and husted every play. I may not like the Mets, but I like David Wright.
They broke the mold after Wright. I wish more players would look at his career, the way he handled himself and try to follow in his footsteps.
Getting a little ridiculous with the adjectives Adams. What has happened to David Wright is unfortunate but there are real tragedies in this world, a baseball player losing a few years to injury and having to call it quits a few years earlier than expected does not qualify as tragic.
Wow, someone’s a little irritable today.
Real tragedies, like when someone finds a word he doesn’t like on the Internet.
Lol
They fill out butt hurt reports and file them away in the closet filling cabinet under “O”.
He is speaking purely within the lines of the game. Not the world.
Alright, so what if you were told right now that you were fired from your job, and that you couldn’t work anywhere else because reasons. I feel like you’d have a bit off a different tone if that were the case.
And if he was collecting $27 mil the next two years, after having collected a hundred the past five?
Angels should trade for him.
They better hurry. The Giants already made an offer.
I would argue that Tom Seaver was the greatest player in Mets history, but Wright has a fantastic career. Sad to see it end this way.
way to go out on a limb
Tom Terrific
Agree. I’d put Wright second and David has been a great and total-class player, but how can you not say Seaver is the team’s greatest ever?
I don’t think any Met fan would disagree. It should be “arguably the greatest position player in franchise history”
player | pitcher. people tend to group them in 2 categories
“as Mets fans bid farewell to arguably the greatest player in franchise history”
Tom Seaver is the greatest player in Mets history. And by far. There should be no argument. Wright is a lot closer to 3rd, 4th and 5th best than first.
I have a feeling he’s meaning players that played their whole career for the Mets and Seaver old played half his career with them.
Why did they trade Seaver then?
The insurance pays all but $6.75MM, but all $27MM is counted on the payroll, right? So that’s $27MM that the Mets can’t spend on free agents.
If they wished to go over the luxury tax otherwise it doesn’t matter.
Well it’s just $27 mil of buffer they need to keep from the tax line, assuming they don’t want to pay tax. But they haven’t been getting that close anyway, and they haven’t been paying right anyway already, and this $27m is over two years so the Mets financial situation actually improves very slightly.
Hope FOX has the good sense to make it the Saturday game of the week.
He can’t do his job. But will stay on the books. I wonder if my employer will do that?
It’s a flawed system.
I really hope my ticket prices go up so we can play him to not work. That’s +6M to not work.
Go watch the NFL if you find the concept of guaranteed contracts so abhorrent. You are showing your intelligence when you imply that ticket prices and payroll are at all related
Flawed system for a flawed franchise.
Best of luck to a class guy
No mention of Ed Kranepool or Choo Choo Coleman??!!
Fav players huh lost identity?
Only on the Mets can you have two pitchers with the same name!
Only on the Mets can you have a catcher who in a trade is traded for himself.
Besides the Krane and Choo Choo, I forgot to mention Marvelous Marv.
Chico Escuela.
He was beddy, beddy gooood.
Instead of giving the fans what they want, a Wright love fest, they settle for a Saturday afternoon game to cram it all in
What’s the Gretzky quote? A Mickey Mouse Franchise? Definitely the Mets.