PORT ST. LUCIE — David Wright has no regrets over the manner in which he handled his rib cage injury at the World Baseball Classic.
The Mets third baseman returned to camp on Sunday still in pain after receiving a cortisone shot in his left rib cage area two days earlier, but said he didn’t wait too long in alerting team officials about his injury.
Wright first experienced soreness in the rib cage about two weeks ago while working out with Team USA to prepare for the WBC. But the Mets weren’t alerted about the problem until Thursday, when Wright was scratched from Team USA’s lineup.
“I always play through whatever I can,” Wright said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the WBC or spring training or the regular season that I play through whatever I can tolerate playing through.
“And I could tolerate playing through it and I was fine with it, and once it got to the point I thought it might prohibit me from coming back and producing with the Mets, that’s when it was time to make that decision.”
Wright, who is questionable for Opening Day, will gauge where he is physically later this week and determine what activities he can resume. But he doesn’t anticipate the injury will lead to a layoff as extensive as last spring, when he strained an abdominal muscle and missed half of camp.
“Obviously the goal of mine is to be ready by Opening Day, but first things first and get the pain out of my side,” Wright said. “I’m in a little different position than I was in last year because I didn’t play any games [before the injury] last year. I’ve played plenty of games this year and had plenty of at-bats. Now the biggest thing is I don’t want this to linger throughout the year. I’ve got to be able to knock this out before I go to baseball stuff.”
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