PORT ST. LUCIE — I was watching “SportsCenter” yesterday morning, because I wanted to see how many times Peyton Manning’s name can be mentioned in a single half-hour, when something from the right corner of the screen caught my attention.
ESPN was displaying its top 12 fantasy third basemen, and I noticed Alex Rodriguez was ranked ninth and David Wright was not even among the 12 names shown.
Now I do not want to confuse ESPN’s fantasy rankings with, say, The Dead Sea Scrolls for relevance. But it does provide a snapshot of third base right now in New York, which is to say the most uncertain since 2004. That was Rodriguez’s first season at his new position and Wright’s debut as a Met. Both are coming off injuries and their worst full years, so suddenly 2012 has a mandate-like feeling for the duo.
Which makes much more sense for a 36-year-old coming off, among other things, knee surgery. But Wright is just 29. This should be his prime. Yet what encircles him is uncertainty — about his health, about his abilities, about where he might be playing the rest of his career.
“As far as I’m concerned it is a big motivator, not the doubt, but the fear of failure,” Wright said. “I just don’t like failing. But there is no doubt in me. I am very, very confident in what I am doing and what I need to do.”
What he needs is to be who he was from 2005-08, when he ranked just behind Rodriguez as the most durable and productive third baseman in the majors. Since then he has been victimized by the dimensions of Citi Field and a Matt Cain fastball to the head, by the Mets’ plummet and his rise in strikeouts, by a stress fracture in his lower back that devastated last year and stiffness in his left ribcage this spring that will continue to keep him out of exhibition games until at least next week.
Wright huddled with manager Terry Collins and head trainer Ray Ramirez in the middle of the clubhouse yesterday morning to agree to continue on a cautious track nursing the ribcage. But the party line remains that this is not a serious injury. It would raise red flags nowhere else, except, of course, these are the Mets, whose HMO logo should be the skull-and-crossbones for poison.
That tortuous recent history with injuries and the departure of running mate Jose Reyes and the general financial and enthusiasm malaise that has infected the Mets has created something of a Free David Wright movement, particularly within the media. And I understand. It is easy to like Wright, and want to see a better tomorrow for someone so pleasant and sincere.
But even if you hate Mets management, you can’t expect them to participate in charity as far as Wright is concerned. To trade him now would mean taking pennies on the dollar in return. That third base ranking on ESPN’s fantasy chart — I looked on line, he is 14th, just behind the diminishing Chipper Jones and, of all things, just in front of Daniel Murphy, who is now a second baseman — reflects, to some degree, how he would be valued around the sport.
He might be a good rebound candidate. But backs are tricky. He is due $15 million this year and, if traded, Wright becomes in control of his $16 million 2013 option. Thus no team is going to expend significant prospects to land him in this state.
So Wright needs a big year because a lefty-righty two-through-six of Murphy, Wright, Ike Davis, Jason Bay and Lucas Duda actually could be an asset for a team desperately in need of such things. But also because better avenues open up to all involved if Wright capitalizes on closer fences at Citi Field and rededication to using the right-center gap to approach .311, 29 homers, 112 RBIs, which was his average season from 2005-08.
The Mets would have to more seriously consider keeping him long term. Interested teams would have to think about surrendering real prospects in return. ESPN and others would have to move him up their 2013 fantasy rankings.
“He is not trade bait,” general manager Sandy Alderson said. “Is he part of the future? I hope the answer is yes. Let’s see how he bounces back this season.”
It is that kind of year in New York, where we wait to see if A-Rod and Wright can again be hot corners.
joel.sherman@nypost.com