David Wright takes a seat in Mets’ spring training home opener
New York Mets third baseman David Wright warms up during spring training baseball practice Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, in Port St. Lucie, Fla. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) Credit: AP/ Jeff Roberson
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — A banner signifying the Mets’ National League championship flew over Tradition Field, where the Mets’ Grapefruit League home opener Friday ended in a 4-4 tie.
Ordinarily, Mets captain David Wright would have been in the starting lineup. Instead, he spent the game wearing a pullover in the dugout.
It was all according to plan, of course, with the Mets easing him into game action as a way to avoid stressing his back. But Wright said he still doesn’t know exactly when he’ll see game action.
“When Terry and Sandy and everybody that talked to me, they made it abundantly clear that this needs to be a slow process and a process that eases me into games,” Wright said.
Wright enters his first full season since being diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a condition that requires careful management. As part of that plan, Wright took a month off in the offseason and delayed the start of baseball activities.
“This year, I couldn’t even do any baseball stuff until the first week of February, so that automatically puts me a month, six weeks behind,” he said. “There’s some catching up that I feel like I need to do before I can go out into a game.”
So, for now, Wright has focused on doing side work in preparation to play in exhibition games, which he uses for fine-tuning his swing.
Said Wright: “I’d rather go get something out of the work that I’m going to do today than to go out there and not be ready to play in a game.”
