Mets' Wright on playing in 2018: 'Going to give it my best shot'
Numerous injuries have kept New York Mets third baseman David Wright from playing more than 40 games in a season since 2014, but the 35-year-old isn't ready to call it quits just yet.
As he enters the 2018 season recovering from separate surgeries he underwent on both his back and shoulder last year, Wright is hoping his body holds up well enough for him to take the field this year.
"I'm going to give it my best shot, certainly," Wright said Saturday at the team's spring facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla. "I probably have a lot of the same questions you're asking me and a lot of people are asking of me. I just don't know. It's certainly been an uphill climb for me.
"To honestly answer your question, I just don't know. I'd love to play, but my body's got to hold up and have to cooperate with me a little bit."
Wright missed the entire 2017 season and last appeared in a major league game on May 27, 2016. He underwent surgery on his right shoulder to repair a torn rotator cuff last September and then had back surgery a month later to remove a bony layer over his spinal canal.
Wright said Saturday that he's still in the rehab process of his recovery and is keeping in communication with the doctors who performed his operations in order to ensure a smooth road back.
"We want to make sure that when we progress to these steps that it's not going to do anything that will kind of set us back. So for now we're in the rehab process," Wright said. "I guess baby steps are still steps in the right direction."
Wright, a seven-time All-Star, has missed serious time due to injury in five of the last six seasons he's played. The lifetime Met is due $20 million in 2018 and still has two years and $27 million remaining on his contract beyond this season.
The Mets signed Todd Frazier this offseason to play third base.
"We're certainly a very good team without me," Wright said. "My mindset is we'll be a better team with both of us out there."
--Field Level Media
