Return couldn’t be happier for Wright
Playoff race enthuses veteran who missed big chunk of season
New York Mets third baseman David Wright wakes up each morning, gingerly steps out of bed, nervously anticipating the pain he’ll feel taking that first step.
The degree of back pain and the threshold of discomfort he can tolerate let him know whether he’ll be able to play a baseball game that evening.
It’s a condition called spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal column, that not only threatened to end his season in May but also jeopardized his entire career, even changing his way of life.
Yet despite the pain, uncertainty and even fear, arriving six hours before game time every day just for treatment and back exercises, Wright will let you in on a secret:
He’s having the absolute time of his life.
You have to understand, this is what he came back for, enduring four months of rehab and the
“I think I got a little spoiled in 2006. ... You think you’re going to go to the playoffs every year.”
Mets third baseman David Wright
loneliness of being away from the team to return just for this moment.
The Mets appear likely to finally be going to the playoffs, with a 71⁄ 2- game lead on the Washington Nationals in the National League East.
“This is what motivated me when this condition was thrown on me,” Wright told USA TODAY Sports. “When I was doing all my rehab and physical therapy, this is what I was picturing when I got back. You dream of the finish line, coming back, the team playing well and having a chance at the playoffs.”
It has been nine excruciating years since the Mets were last in the postseason, winning the NL East and losing in the seventh game of the NL Championship Series to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Wright was a kid at the time, 23 and in his second season in the big leagues. He had dreams of being the Derek Jeter of Queens, with his club being a postseason staple, just like the New York Yankees.
“I think I got a little spoiled in 2006 as a younger player,” said Wright, who is hitting .289 with two homers and seven extra-base hits in 18 games since his return, “running away from the division and coming within a couple of runs of the World Series. You think you’re going to go to the playoffs every year.
“Fast-forward to nine years, and I still haven’t gone back there. I never really had a chance to sit back and soak in all of that enjoyment, but I’m trying to do it now.”
This is what Wright tries to tell ace Matt Harvey. Tomorrow is never promised. You can believe you’ll be in the playoffs year after year, but nobody knows; this might be his best shot. The Nationals, remember, believed they would be a perennial World Series team when they shut down Stephen Strasburg in 2012.
Wright doesn’t want to divulge details of the conversations he has had with Harvey since the controversy broke Sept. 5 about whether he would stop pitching once he reached 180 innings, only saying that everyone has reached an understanding.
“The biggest thing about Matt, and I talked to him at length,” Wright said, “is that when there is an unknown, that’s when everybody starts speculating about a worst-case scenario. Matt has absolutely the right for his opinion to be heard. He hired representation to give advice and Dr. (James) Andrews to give advice.
“The unknown was the driving force behind the criticism. Once he cleared the air (writing an essay for The Players’ Tribune), and everybody heard it from his mouth, everything calmed down.
“They’ve got a good plan in place now.”
Certainly, every other Mets’ plan has worked out nicely over these last two months, with none having a bigger impact than landing Yoenis Cespedes from the Detroit Tigers 20 minutes before the trade deadline.
The man has hit nine homers in his last 14 games and 17 since joining the Mets. Mark McGwire is the only man who ever hit more homers after being traded at the deadline, with 24 for the 1997 St. Louis Cardinals.
No wonder Wright is not only the official captain of the Mets, but the unofficial campaign manager for Cespedes, believing he belongs in the MVP discussion.
“When you think of Cespedes, you think of Manny Ramirez and what he did when he went to the Dodgers (in 2008),” Wright said, recalling Ramirez’s .396 batting average, 17 homers and 53 RBI and staggering 1.232 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. Ramirez finished fourth in the MVP balloting that season.
“When a guy like that goes to your team,” Wright said, “he gives everyone in the organization a boost. The energy and the enthusiasm rubs off on the players, and what he has done on the playing field is just ridiculous.
“To be honest, I’m not sure how this MVP stuff works, but just the consideration for the award is an honor in itself, and with the impact he’s made, he should be recognized.”
Who knows, maybe Cespedes’ impact translates into a long- term stay with the Mets, keeping him even beyond Wright’s contract, which expires after the 2020 season.
“Hopefully the success we’re having, and he keeps rolling, and we keep this thing going,” Wright said, “and it makes the decision easier for everybody.”
Wright laughs, pauses and reminds you that he’s not taking anything for granted. He remembers 2007. The pain of having a seven-game lead with 17 left to play and going 5-12 and sitting home in October as a Philadelphia Phillies dynasty took root.
“I know how each game is critical,” Wright said. “I was enjoying that season up to that point. I can’t force myself to look ahead.”
It’s why it’s crucial, Wright says, to be completely candid with Mets manager Terry Collins and the training staff each day. He was told by his doctor, Robert Watkins, there would be good days, but bad ones too, and filled with a whole lot of OK days.
Collins informs him via text message the previous night whether he’s planning to put him in the lineup, but if Wright wakes up in pain, it’s up to him to tell Collins the team might be better without him for the night.
“Dr. Watkins told me, ‘There will be days that you wake up, and it’s a bad day, and there’s nothing you can do to change that,’ ” Wright said. “The majority of the time is manageable. But some days, those bad days, the nerves can get into a strangled position in your canal and you can hurt yourself if you push too hard.”
Still, just the fact that he’s back, with three doubles and three RBI in his last three games, might be the most surprising element of all to the Mets’ magical resurgence.
“If you had talked to David Wright in the middle of May — late May, early June — the frustration in his voice,” Collins told reporters, “not knowing what kind of player he was going to be. If this was an injury that was going to keep him from being able to play at all this year. To coming back and being a big part of what’s going on right now and helping us, it’s huge.”
Wright’s return almost means more to his teammates than it does to him; they are stoked by his sheer presence and buoyed by his leadership.
“There’s no question,” said Mets outfielder Michael Cuddyer, Wright’s childhood friend from Chesapeake, Va., “just the excitement to see him getting back on the field, and in a pennant race, is great for everyone. Guys take notice and watch what he does every day. He doesn’t demand respect, but he commands it.”
If the Mets can close out the division, play deep into October and even November, it will exceed Wright’s imagination, particularly after initially ignoring his doctor’s advice.
“When the doctor told me what I had, the first thing he told me was not to Google it,” Wright said. “So what did I do? I Googled it. You start thinking about the worst-case scenarios, with athletes forced to retire, and whether this will work.
“Well, these guys to have grinded it out all year, stayed in the race and allowed (general manager) Sandy (Alderson) to make those moves at the deadline, and now we have got a legitimate shot at this thing.
“To be a part of this, I can’t tell how good that feels.
“You dream of this.”