David Wright, the longtime third baseman for the New York Mets may have had a Hall of Fame career had it not been for the back injuries that cost him a couple hundred games and ultimately ended his career. He hit .296/.376/.491 for his career with 242 homers and 970 RBI’s. He scored 949 runs and stole 196 bases. He was a 7 time all star and won 2 gold gloves and 2 silver sluggers.

From 2005-2008 he was one of the best players in baseball hitting .311/.394/.534 averaging 30 homers 115 RBIs, 109 runs and 23 stolen bases per 162. Then in 2009 he lost his power hitting only 10 homers but still hitting .307/.390/.447. In 2010 he regained it hitting 29 but he lost his slash stat prowess hitting only .283/.354/.503. From 2011-2013 he had mixed success hitting .292/.378/.481 averaging 24 homers 93 RBI’s and 20 stolen bases while only playing in 370 games over the three year period.

His back was really an issue and it showed in 2014 he played in a fair amount of games, 134, but he only hit 8 homers and hit .269/.324/.374. From then until his last game he only played in 77 games in 4 years, playing 2 in total in 2017 and 2018. It was really sad to see a Mets legend have to end his career in pain. We can only think about the impact he may have had on baseball if he played another 5 years at full strength. Thanks for reading.