Trade David Wright? I for one would not do that. I feel David Wright has the best years ahead of him. But a couple of knuckleheads who grace afternoon drive time at the opposite ends of the dial in
There is no question that something needs to be done before opening day next season. An overhaul of sorts is required. Mostly, that overhaul should be in the bullpen. Many of the pitchers in that pen contributed to the demise of the 2008 Mets. How does anyone expect a team to win a division when the bullpen authors 30 blown saves? That is intolerable.
But the remarks made by Mike Francesa of WFAN and Michael Kay of ESPN Radio (both Yankee fans) reflect almost a football mentality. For two years in a row now the Mets failed on the last day of the season. Also in both seasons, the Mets compiled losing records during the last two weeks against also-ran teams. This is a problem and certainly it cannot be denied.
But you cannot reconstruct your team with the idea that next year when we face elimination on the last day of the season, we’ll have the players to win. That’s a bit absurd, don’t you think? The point is the Mets for two seasons in a row should have never been in the position to lose the season on the last day. That’s the bigger problem and that is what the focus should be on. The Mets goal in retooling the team should be to create a roster that can capture a playoff spot before the last day of the season.
This is not to say that the Mets did not choke the season away at the end. They did. This year the Milwaukee Brewers were in the midst of a meltdown that would make what the Mets went through pale in comparison. But, the Brewers righted the ship during the last week of the season going 6-1 where as the Mets went 3-4 on their final home stand at Shea. So is there a problem, yes of course. Is trading David Wright the answer? Not unless the return is so great that it almost guarantees a playoff spot next year and for years after.
When you look at 2008, there were so many devastating losses, Mets fans became numb. How many leads did the bullpen give back? Would the Mets have been under the same pressure the last couple of weeks had the bullpen did their job? Likely the Mets would have been in position to clinch the division by mid-September had the pen saved most or even half of their opportunities.
My point is that regardless of the offensive woes with runners in scoring position the bullpen was the primary cause of the Mets failure to get into the post season. The Mets secondary culprit was the hitter’s inability to tack on runs late and get key hits with two outs.
Both issues must be addressed but before the Mets trade David Wright, they had better have some super plan. If you think the fan base is angry now, wait till David Wright starts hitting baseballs out of sight at Citi Field wearing another uniform.
On the heels of two seasons where the Mets lost a chance to go to the post season on the last day, I would be naïve to think that no player is untouchable. But in David Wright you have a franchise player who has now knocked in over 100 runs and has hit 25 home runs or more for four consecutive seasons. He struggled this year in clutch situations. That means he needs more support around him. Also David needs to grow up and realize that he cannot do it all. Part of his problem was he had too many big swings when short swings were required. David needs to get back to being the hitter he has been in the past where he took the ball the other way hitting line drives. He has to have faith in the other players around him. He needs to remove the weight of the world from his shoulders.
Mike Francesa and Michael Kay are more interested in creating controversy than what really ails the Mets. That said, Omar Minaya has a daunting task in front of him. But trading David Wright would likely hasten Omar’s exit from running the Mets, new contract or not.
