The fate of a franchise is an awfully big burden to put on one man’s shoulders. Or should I say shoulder – singular? The Mets are scuffling along, barely surviving August with their dignity intact, the odd triple play notwithstanding. As of this writing, their record stands at 61-70. There have been many chins wagging that, but for the season-long slumps of Curtis Granderson and David Wright, that tally might have been close to reversed and the Mets might have found themselves in the thick of the National League playoff races. We can all “what if?” ourselves to death, of course and speculating on what might have been is famously a fool’s errand. As Bill Parcells put it, with typical brevity, “you are what your record says you are.” In any case, these are two key players whose condition will factor in the team’s fortunes in the future.
Granderson’s troubles are at least a bit explicable. He is on the older side – a shade over 33 – and he moved from an extremely friendly hitting environment at Yankee Stadium to cavernous Citi Field. He was never a high-average hitter, but the shift in venues also sapped his power. The questions about Wright, though, are a bit thornier.
Having only recently turned 31, you can’t really call David Wright an “older” player, despite this being his 11th season in the big leagues. When the team first moved into Citi, he seemed to suffer the same kind of culture shock as Granderson. While Shea Stadium was never extremely favorable to hitters, David Wright thrived there, putting up a slash line of .318/.403/.555 — an OPS of .958 – at home between 2004 and 2008. Since then, his statistics have paralleled the team’s record: as his personal record at home declined, so did the team’s W-L percentage. In Citi Field, so far, Wright’s slashes look like this: .281/.383/.452, for an OPS of .835. The Mets’ home record since the big move is 221-246, a .473 clip. In addition, since 2009, he has been dealing with a series of injuries, from beanings to a fractured low back, to a cracked bone in the hand. This season’s flavor is a chronically sore shoulder, which has seemed to suppress his power even further.
David Wright is at the point in his career where you have to wonder whether this season – in which he has been out-homered by the likes of Lucas Duda, Travis d’Arnaud, Daniel Murphy and Granderson, and matched by Chris Young, of all people! – is a blip on the screen, the accumulation of nagging injuries catching up with him, or the start of his true “decline” phase. Yes, he’s only 31, but that’s still the “wrong” side of 30. Whichever it is, the Mets have a lot riding on that formerly sweet swing.
We can only hope this year is an aberration.
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I don’t know.
I don’t know if his body is breaking down, beginning with his shoulder, and how much discouragement has factored into things.
Why not bring the fences in at Citi?
As to Granderson, I am not sure that he is slumping at all…his average is about his average of the last few years.
SAD TO SAY BUT DAVID WRIGHT IS DONE DECLINE IN FULL EFFECT
I don’t think a decline can be considered until we see what happens next year. If his shoulder is truly bad, then we’ll see where he’s at next year when he heals up. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has surgery during the off season as that’s David’s MO, play through a deal later.
I’d call it
David Wright: Overraction by the fans.
It was only 4 months ago that this https://mets360.com/?p=21114 was written
and this https://mets360.com/?p=19397 10 months ago.
You can call it an overreaction, and that’s mostly justified. But I’m still worried about the effects of this season moving forward. If it’s an injury, he’s risking hurting himself further. If he’s spoken with doctors and he’s cleared to play through an injury, then all the tinkering he’s doing at the plate is just screwing up his normally tight swing. If injuries have nothing to do with it, then I’m concerned that he’s changing his approach for no reason at all, and that’s getting into his head. Whatever is happening, it’s obviously not good for him. If anyone can fight through it, it’s our Captain America. But I’m still worried about him.
I don’t like Collins as a manager. wright is having a bad time , move him in the batting order. it would take a lot of pressure from the 3 spot. I think the ideal spot for him is batting him no. 1 in the order. would allow him to be free swinging, until he puts it back together, but that might were he will stay.
Has Wright been in this batting order spot his whole career? Why is it suddenly getting to him–has he said anything?
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I’m just having a hard time believing that after 11 seasons in the majors and most of a HOF career under his belt, that it’s the ‘pressure’ you mention that’s only now becoming a problem.
“There have been many chins wagging that, but for the season-long slumps of Curtis Granderson and David Wright, that tally might have been close to reversed and the Mets might have found themselves in the thick of the National League playoff races.”
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This is the sort of misleading cherry-picking that can cause fans and even GMs to believe they’re close to contention when they’re not.
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Granted Wright is having a poor year (2.4 wins to date, not disastrous), but CG will probably end the year having been worth 2 wins, entirely in line with his previous 2 seasons. More importantly, the Mets are only 61 and 70 despite having a whole heckuva lot of things go right.
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The starters have enjoyed above average health overall, and have met or exceeded their career averages, and in the case of a fat 41 year old pitcher have been both durable and solid, remarkably enough. DeGrom of course has been an almost complete surprise, a rookie giving the Mets a #2 starter despite having only started 58 games in his pro career. A bunch of scrap heap relievers have been surprisingly good. Duda is having a career year after four years of being woefully miscast. Tejada came back around and projects to be worth a couple of wins. D’Arnaud, a mystery until this year, has been both healthy and an above average hitting catcher. Murph is having a career year. Lagares is also having a career year, wholly out of line with his previous performance at bat.
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Overall they’ve played in much better than average luck. This team could easily have been a lot worse. With just ordinary luck they could have been five and more games worse. How does 55-76 sound to you?
“whole heckuva lot of things go right.”
really? what team have you been watching?
TDA has not been an “above-average catcher”. The guy couldn’t hit for 2 months and we had to send him down to AAA. Even though he’s found it the past few months, overall, he’s still been a disappoint, especially when you factor in his defense…
I’m not sure if people just had really low expectations for Colon, but a guy who had a 2.99 ERA playing in the AL the last 2 years moving to the NL and posting a 3.82 ERA is considered solid? The innings are nice, but it’s not like the Mets have a shortage of SP.
Wright and Grandy and Chris young (remember him?) have been huge disappointments, and I would probably also include Mejia and Gee on that list.
Murphy, Tejada, Wheeler, Niese all have played to their averages.
Here are the guys that have actually “gone right”
Duda: i don’t think many expected him to get to the level he has.
Lagares: His offensive numbers have been slipping from the first series, but overall his hitting is up
deGrom
The bullpen, most notably, Familia.
But even Duda, deGrom and the bullpen didn’t turn it on until Juneish.
I’m counting a lot more things that went wrong than right. The loss of production of Wright alone probably negates all the things that went right.
I just think he’s playing hurt. As to how severe the injury is affecting his ability to drive the ball? The numbers speak for themselves. My thought is he somehow feels obligated to stay in the line up and try to contribute in other ways. Since we have a court jester for a manager there is no one to tell him to sit and rest his ailing shoulder. The Wilpons are selfishly happy to accommodate Wright and leave him out there.
In my honest opinion, he needs more than health. He needs to correct his swing and his approach. If he doesn’t have success at the MLB level making these adjustments, a stint in AAA wouldn’t hurt. Captain or not! It seemed to help several others, why not him?
Frank I am curious as to how much time and thought you gave that idea. How old are you? So if you’re the GM and manager you sit down David Wright the man who epitomizes the heart and soul and the respect of all his teammates and tell him your sending him down to AAA? Really? That would solve his playing injured?Most fans can see he’s probably playing hurt and will more than likely have to have surgery on his ailing shoulder. Maybe you could capitalize all your words on your next comment
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