In a lengthy and exclusive interview with The Post, David Wright said he firmly believes he will produce to his expectations in 2010, admitted he has “some things to prove” and maintained that launching homers at Citi Field is simply a matter of his adjusting to the ballpark.
Wright, the Mets’ superstar and face of the franchise, is coming off the first difficult season of what has been a stellar career. The 2009 season was a rough one for Wright. He hit a career-low 10 homers, had a career-high 140 strikeouts, was on the disabled list for the first time, and his team suffered through a fourth-place finish.
Nevertheless, Wright, who has been busy training in his native Virginia, said he believes he will put up big numbers in 2010, the type of run production Mets fans have come to expect from him.
“It’s what I’m accustomed to,” Wright said in his first public comments since the Mets’ season ended. “I have all the confidence in the world that with the lineup that we’re putting out there next year. And with [hitting coach Howard Johnson] and the rest of the coaching staff and being able to dissect my swing and know what I was doing right and wrong last year, I’ll go out there and do what I’m capable of doing, and that’s driving in runs and scoring runs.”
In his four full seasons before last year, Wright averaged 29 homers, 112 RBIs and 106 runs before slipping to 10, 72 and 88, last season. Wright, 27, hit .307 with a .390 on-base percentage and 27 steals. But 10 homers? All those strikeouts? Only 72 RBIs?
Wright said there was not just one problem that caused his production drop-off, and admitted he was “out of whack” at times mechanically.
“I felt very uncomfortable in the batter’s box,” he said.
Wright declined to use the absences of Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado — leaving Wright without much in front of or behind him — as an excuse, though he admitted certainly it’s great to have those players in the lineup.
As for hitting in cavernous Citi Field?
“I think one of my greatest strengths as a hitter is going the opposite field and hitting with power to the opposite field. Obviously Citi Field is going to take a lot of that away because it is spacious out there,” Wright said. “You’ve got to really get into one to [homer] opposite field. That’s not a knock on Citi Field. You have to adapt to the park that you’re playing in.”
Wright said he is offering no excuses for his struggles last season.
“I’m not using Citi Field as an excuse. I’m not using the lineup as an excuse,” he said. “It’s up to me to go out there and do what I’m capable of and I think there were times last year that I did not do that.”
Wright, who has worked with Johnson this offseason on his mechanics, said he can go deep at Citi Field.
“You just have to adapt to the ballpark,” he said. “Whether it’s learning to pull the ball a little bit more, getting stronger, doing things that will help you hit the ball out of the ballpark.”
In this era, whenever someone’s power goes up or down dramatically, there is natural suspicion whether a player was using performance-enhancing drugs.
Wright dismisses that theory.
“Since I came into the league, we’ve had drug tests,” he said. “Major League Baseball, the Players Association, we’ve got great drug testing going on. And I think that speaks for itself. I’ve never put anything illegal into my body. I take a lot of pride in that.
“There’s a lot of things that I can point my finger at and say there’s some reasoning behind the drop off in home runs and 100 percent that’s not one of them.”
Wright, who said he is thrilled with the Jason Bay acquisition, is hungry for spring training.
“I’m ready to go,” he said. “I’m excited. We have a lot to prove. I have some things to prove.”