Trying to keep Wright outlook in tough times

David Wright spent some time before Saturday’s game chatting with Mets majority owner Fred Wilpon near the batting cages at Citi Field.

“We bump into each other now and then,” Wright said before the Mets played host to the Padres. “I’m fortunate where he’s an intelligent baseball guy, so if he sees something I can be working on or the team can be working on, we talk about it.”

With eight losses in their previous 10 games heading into Saturday, there was plenty to chat about and Wright’s struggles have played no small part in the team’s recent woes.

The third baseman had just two hits in 34 atbats during the 28 stretch, along with only one RBI and an OPS of .254.

“I’ve been as much to blame as anyone for what’s going on,” Wright said.

He also has been through Mets seasons like this more times than he would want, so he has become somewhat of an expert on how to deal with the current misery at Citi Field.

Nevertheless, he doesn’t plan on making any speeches or doing anything drastic.

“Team meetings are probably one of the more overrated things in sports,” Wright said. “You close the door and there’s already a negative tone. And a lot of times, it happens after a bad game and everybody is already upset.

“And then the same kind of stuff is said over and over again.”

Instead, Wright uses a different strategy.

“For me, it’s more of a oneonone type of thing to make sure these things don’t get to the point where something small becomes contagious and people start hanging their heads and have the attitude where you feel sorry for yourself,” Wright said. “I haven’t [seen] that here, but you want to prevent it.”

Especially with as many young players as the Mets have.

“Everybody is guilty of it, where frustration leads to more negativity and poor atbats,” Wright said. “It’s something I have to defend against, too. But with the less experienced guys, it’s easy to fall into the trap of wanting instant results and it doesn’t work that way. You need two, three weeks of playing well to get those results. And the same goes for the team.”

Earlier in the week, Curtis Granderson said things weren’t as bad as they might seem because no teams had run away with the NL East or the wild card. Wright agreed, to a point.

“We’ve shot ourselves in the foot plenty of times,” Wright said. “We’ve lost some games that we should have won.”

But Wright said sees reasons for hope.

“Especially with how poorly we’ve played at times, we’re not that far back, and I really think we’ve got some good baseball ahead of us,” Wright said. “Obviously, that gives you confidence. You have to expect the young players to play better the more they mature, so there are definitely reasons for optimism.”

But Wright also knows things don’t always turn around.

“We need to play better baseball,” he said. “It’s not about meetings or speeches or any of that stuff. We’ve played well for decent stretches this year and now we have to go out and do it again.”