David Wright finally admitted his left shoulder is not “100 percent,” but neither he nor the team has plans to shut him down to let the bruised rotator cuff heal.
“Is the shoulder 100 percent? No,” Wright said. “But that takes rest and that’s what the offseason is for.”
The third baseman sat out again Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the Braves, although not because of the shoulder injury. Instead, it was the muscle spasms in his neck that sidelined him for the series opener.
Despite the ongoing health issues, Wright insists he’ll be able to play as soon as his neck improves.
“Is that the reason I’m struggling the way I’m struggling? No,” Wright said. “I think it’s not a reasonable assessment as to why I’m playing poorly. The assessment of why I’m playing poorly is that I’m not producing the way I’m capable of producing. I don’t think it’s because of my shoulder.”
His bosses seem to agree, for now.
“Could we legitimately put him on the disabled list? Probably,” general manager Sandy Alderson said. “At this point, we’re not there yet. We’ll continue to monitor it and see where it takes us.”
Manager Terry Collins said he isn’t inclined to sit the ailing captain, either.
“Those decisions, when you’re shutting David Wright down, it’ll be a discussion with a lot of people,” Collins said. “To get to 100 percent, he’s going to need a long period of time off. He’s probably not going to get it here, right now.”
Though Wright hasn’t had any recent tests on the shoulder, he said “nothing’s changed” from the original diagnosis, which showed no structural damage and therefore no real reason to give him extended time off.
“We’ve had him examined,” Collins said. “There’s not damage in there. He’s got a bruise. Sometimes bruises don’t go away very fast. The conversations we’ve had have been, ‘Does it affect your swing?’ If it affects the swing, then we need to fix that.”
Collins also said he was convinced it had impacted his swing, but Alderson still is willing to let Wright play.
“Our decision is predicated essentially on feedback from the patient and David has said it’s not a factor,” said Alderson, who knows Wright is not always forthcoming with injury concerns. “Now, should we discount that somewhat? Probably. But at this point, he said it’s not a factor, so we’ve accepted that.”
But he wouldn’t rule out a future stint on the disabled list if “at some point the diagnosis in the shoulder becomes relevant and the neck becomes relevant.”
That hasn’t happened and Wright’s longtime friend B.J. Upton of the Braves isn’t surprised the Mets captain has tried to play through the discomfort.
“He’s a competitor,” Upton said. “He’s not going to bail on his teammates. That’s not in his character. I’m sure when he’s able to play, he’s going to play. He’s always been that way. I know David and if he can play, he’s going to play. There might come a time when he shouldn’t play and he’ll still try to play.”
The Mets will continue to give Wright occasional days off whenever he does return.
In the meantime, Wright hopes to turn himself around, but he’s not going to look deeply into his struggles.
“I just try see the ball and hit it,” Wright said. “I don’t dig too far into the analytics of my swing. I just try to keep it as simple as possible.”
Additional reporting by Kevin Kernan