It's an injury thing. Wright has been battling a shoulder issue for the last three months, finally catching up to him, causing the Mets to shut the captain down for the year. The persistent inflammation in his rotator cuff that Wright has been dealing with is the reason why he has turned in the worst of his 11 year big league career this year. Before the Mets shut Wright down, he was hitting .269 with eight home runs and 63 RBI. In fact Wright hasn't hit a home run since July 11th at home against the Miami Marlins.
When healthy, Wright usually averages 25 home runs and 101 RBI's in a season while hitting around .301. You could just tell by watching Wright play over the last month that something wasn't right with the captain at the plate. In the field, Wright looked fine, but when he would come to the plate, you could just tell that something wasn't going right with David. Some speculated that it might be mental. He had a little protection in the lineup with how well Lucas Duda and Daniel Murphy had been hitting this year, but still Wright is normally a little more productive than what he had been showing in years past. You almost kind of knew that it had to be an injury, because when Wright was healthy, he can still drive the ball, which is something he wasn't doing at the plate this year.
Now Wright can get the rest he needs, come back stronger than every in 2015 and look like the Wright of old.
So now with David out for the rest of the year, this begs the question as to what the Mets are now going to do at third base the rest of the year? Also you have to wonder how this will effect the teams playoff hopes? Well the Mets tried an experiment against the Rockies in the final game of that series, moving Daniel Murphy to 3rd from 2nd and they placed rookie Dilson Herrera back at 2nd. Herrera spent time at 2nd earlier this year when Murphy spent time on the DL. This experiment worked out pretty well for the mets in this game, but now we just have to wait and see if this could be a possible long term solution. Not having Murphy at 3rd because Wright has that job locked down. It helps show the Mets what they have in the system with guys like Herrera and Wilmer Flores, both of whom could be used as the shortstop next season.
But that's not till next season. First the Mets have to get through the rest of this season, which has 16 more games left for the team. Some Mets fans think that the team still has a shot at the last Wild Card spot. At the moment they currently sit 5.5 games out of the last wild card spot, trailing still the Marlins, Braves, Brewers, and Pirates for the final spot. I can see a bit of an argument here, considering that the Mets have won four straight games, are 7-2 in the month of September and are 13-7 in their last 20 games. That does give the team a little bit of hope. But at the same time, most of the teams they've played in the last few weeks are teams that are under .500.
In the final 16 games the Mets play the Nationals at home for four games, the Marlins at home for three, go to Atlanta for three, then to Washington for three and close out the year with three at home against the Houston Astros. The Mets would have to go 12-4 over the final 16 games to even sniff the last wild card spot and, as much as I hate to say this, that's not going to happen. The Mets can't beat the Nationals at home to save their lives, when they play the Marlins they play a little better and they are average against the Braves. So a lot has to go right for the Mets to make the playoffs, but sad to say its not going to happen the Mets are going to once again miss out on post season ball.
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