Mets’ Wright, still seeking return, will have surgery
His body keeps betraying him, but David Wright isn’t giving up.
The 34-year-old third baseman is putting himself through another operation to try to return to play for the New York Mets.
The team sent out an email with its medical updates Monday morning, and tucked inside were the names of four players scheduled for season-ending operations.
The unlucky four: Wright (right rotator cuff ), outfielder Michael Conforto (torn posterior capsule left shoulder), infielder T.J. Rivera (Tommy John surgery, right elbow) and lefty reliever Josh Edgin (left knee).
Wright and Edgin are scheduled for their repair jobs Tuesday, the other two sometime this week. No return timetables were given.
Wright was shut down in spring training after experiencing discomfort throwing while trying to come back from a cervical discectomy and fusion surgery in his neck in June of last year. He rehabbed and rehabbed, then went on a rehab assignment last month, playing three games for Class AAA St. Lucie (Port St. Lucie, Fla.). He had to stop the process again because of more shoulder pain. Then the captain found out why.
“It’s really, really sad to think that this guy is one of the best players in the game and has had to miss the amount of time that he has had to miss with various injuries,” manager Terry Collins said. “I visited with him the other day, and they just thought this is the only thing that they need to take care off. They need to get it done so he can get back on the field and continue the process of trying to get back.
“So I salute him for what he’s had to go through, but it’s really, really tough to watch.”
The seven-time All-Star had been the face of the franchise, but his face has hardly been seen over the last three years. Battling spinal stenosis, Wright played 38 games in 2015. Neck issues limited him to 37 games last season.
And he will end up playing no games for the Mets this season, his fifth in an eight-year, $138 million deal. He’s owed $47 million through 2020. Collins wasn’t sure about the root of this rotator cuff injury.
“I’ve had some friends who have had that kind of surgery; it’s not an easy one,” said infielder Jose Reyes, who planned to text his friend and teammate. “It’s sad. All the work that he put in all this time and now at this time of the season he has to go and have surgery. … It’s tough.”
The question is: Why keep trying?
“This guy respects the game,” Collins said. “He respects where he came from and what he’s done and the people who have given him that opportunity, which is this organization. I’m sure, in his mind, he feels like he owes them the max effort, which is the kind of person he is. We all say, ‘Why would he go through it?’ Well, because he thinks he has to and should. …
“During our discussions, he just said, ‘I think I still have something to offer. I’ve got to give myself that chance to see if I can do it.’ … I just think this guy’s heart is still in it. So he’s going to chase it as long as he feels he has that energy.”
Heyman wrote this for The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record, part of the USA TODAY Network.