David Wright’s Final Goodbye To MLB After 14 Years

By Jordan Long

The New York Mets’ season finished yesterday with a 1-0 victory over the Miami Marlins.  It also ended the career of David Wright.  He is retiring after 14 years of playing in Major League Baseball, all with the New York Mets.

                Wright appeared for the Mets for the first time in 2004.  That year he played in 69 games.  He hit .293 with 14 home runs while adding 40 RBI’s, a taste of what Wright was going to do at the dish for the Mets.

                His top season for the Mets at the plate was in 2008.  Wright suited up in all but 2 games that season.  He hit .302 and had a career high in RBI’s and home runs.  Wright smacked 33 home runs with 124 RBI’s.  

This season Wright was shut down for all but 2 games because of back and shoulder injuries.  In the 2017 offseason he had rotator cuff surgery.  He was hoping to play this year but setbacks in the shoulder area didn’t allow him to.  Wright managed 2 plate appearances and didn’t do anything with them.   It was clear he needed to walk away from the game.   

                Wright will go down as one of the top Mets’ to ever play the game. During his career he was always able to hit the long ball.  He had 6 years where he went over the 20 home run mark.  The Mets knew Wright would have base hits to move his teammates around the base paths and score them when they were in scoring position.  Wright achieved 100+ RBI’s 5 times.  Opposing teams had to be aware of him stealing bases.  Whenever he had a chance, he would steal a base ending with 196 in his career. For his offense, Wright won the Silver Slugger award in 2007 and 2008 for being the best offensive player at 3^rd base in the National League. 

                The Mets trusted Wright’s defense at 3^rd base.  He was able to pick the ball up and throw batters out at 1^st base.  He ended up winning 2 Gold Gloves in 2007 and 2008.

                Wright played baseball at a high level when he was healthy helping him to be voted onto 7 All-Star Games.  He ends with a career average of .296 with 242 home runs and 970 RBI’s.

 The only achievement missing is a World Series.  The Mets made one “Fall Classic” in 2015 but lost to the Royals in 5 games.   Even without that, his resume speaks for how well he played the game.