New York Mets

Regardless of his walk off ribeye Saturday and incessant loyalty to New York, David Wright‘s production doesn’t warrant a spot in the 2-hole.

David Wright, 33, is the face of the New York Mets franchise.

He’s a lifelong Met.

He’s the Captain, yet he’s no longer a reasonable choice to hit in the No. 2 hole in New York’s lineup.

It’s a sad and harsh revelation, but it’s true.

Yup, even after turning back the clock for his walk-off heroics against the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday night, Wright’s production simply doesn’t justify his position near the top of the order.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6hWkz4StcY

It’s clear that the Captain, who’s the only Met still on the team from the heartbreaking 2006 “glory days,” is a shell of his former self, having to deal with a degenerative back condition. At this point, every Mets fan can fancy themselves an expert about spinal stenosis.

Up until this point in the 2016 MLB season, a little more of a quarter of the way through, DW is batting to a .224 average, with 4 HR and 9 RBI. It’s easy to spot bad numbers when you see them, even if the Cap has to take a day off here and there to treat his back. When he plays, though, he is a strikeout machine, way too ineffective to bat near the top of the order.

His shoddy fielding is one thing, but to put it simply, his lack of production at the plate is really killing the team.. His inopportune strikeouts (mostly ending with a called strike-3, AKA the ‘backwards K’) demolish any flow the lineup may have had, often leaving no one on base for the likes of Michael Conforto and Yoenis Cespedes to hit in for a run. In fact, the Captain has struck out 50 times in his first 33 games this season, 120 at-bats. No wonder this team relies so heavily on the home run.

A strikeout ratio like that won’t cut it for the $20 million dollar per year man, and Wright knows it. Sure, it sucks the Metropolitans wasted the prime of the Captain’s career with often-terrible teams, but that’s reality; as is the fact that DW should switch spots with Asdrubal Cabrera in the lineup.

The 2-hitter needs to get on base consistently. That’s why the “big guns” lurk in the 3-hole and 4-hole…to produce big innings starting with the guys who get on base.

Maybe the move for the Captain will be temporary. Maybe he’ll get back in the swing of things (pun intended), and start seeing the ball like he has 20/25 vision. Still, the fact of the matter is the Mets team batting average with RISP is a disheartening .210, good for 30th in the MLB…Remember, there are 30 Major League teams.

After the Harvey/Nationals disaster of a game on the 19th of May, the Mets had 87 RBI with RISP. For reference, the Philadelphia Phillies had 86. The Washington Nationals, 115. The St. Louis Cardinals, 167. The National League average was 122.

Obviously, the Mets lack of situational hitting, so to speak, can’t all be blamed on the Captain that our fanbase has known and loved for 13 season, but a change needs to be made, starting with the least productive 2-hitter in baseball.

Luckily, us fans have come to remember DW as a resilient being, thus, it’s in his nature to bounce back. As poet laureate Tubthumper once said, in their hit 90s song Tubthumping:

“You’ll get knocked down, but you’ll get up again, and they’re never gonna keep you down.”

For Mr. Wright, lets hope it’s not a matter of if he can bounce back, but when.

And hey, at least the Captain is still doing Captain-like things, mentoring his peers through good times and bad.

NEXT: David Wright’s Walk-Off RBI Lifts New York Mets (Video)

Jeremy Fialkow was born and raised in Miami, FLA, but currently studies at the University of Maryland. When he's not studying hard, he can be found supporting his sometimes hopeless NY teams: Knicks, Mets, Jets, and Isles. Your sympathy is appreciated.