Past and Past

The day for the Mets and basically everyone who follows them kind of got off to a morose start when the word came down that David Wright was going to have surgery on his neck that would basically end his season, and for all we know could end his career altogether.

I don't especially feel this is the proper place to eulogize Wright's career, whether this happens to be it or not. That's a different story for another time. Right now, the Mets still have a season to worry about and at this point, I'm not entirely convinced that they're not better off without Wright in the lineup. Think about it. 2006 David Wright wasn't walking out of that dugout. We'd been getting creaky, old David Wright that can't move along runners, can't drive guys in, occasionally pops a Home Run and just isn't hitting those authoritative line drives that he made his name with. To say nothing of the fact that he's been a walking strikeout most of the season anyway.

I know that Wright is the captain and there's a whole morale thing at work here but there's only so much that morale can do when the guy who's supposedly providing it isn't making a meaningful contribution. The larger issue for the Mets has been the compounding injuries. It's not just Wright out that's problematic, it's him, combined with Duda, and d'Arnaud, and Walker, and Conforto and even Lagares, and all the depth in the world can't compensate for so many missing pieces. But the remainder of these guys will be back at some point. Which is why I'm comfortable saying what I said last year when the Mets didn't trade for Tulowitzki: I remain all in on Wilmer Flores.

Of course, then Flores went out and got hurt in tonight's game, leaving after getting hit by a Juan Nicasio pitch. But the Mets won anyway, and part of the reason is that two of these hurt guys, Neil Walker and Michael Conforto, hit Home Runs and Conforto actually looked like a hitter again after a few days to recoup and clear his head. This, in support of Bartolo Colon, who had his usual solid effort and even chipped in with a double that brought the house down. The game, then, seemed mere scenery from everything else going on, but that's now two days in a row where the Mets offense actually looked like an offense and scored some runs, so that's a step in the right direction. Now comes a number of games against Atlanta, so if the Mets want to cut into this deficit they've gotten themselves into, now would be a good time to do that.