Could David Wright Pressure Ownership Into Spending?

Full disclosure: I am a huge David Wright fan. Not "wet myself and call him Captain America" big, but he says the right things, seems to be a genuinely decent person and plays a damn good third base. Now, formalities aside, let's talk about what Wright could have said on Mike Francesa'a show the other day.

"I've got to tell you Mike, when they promised me that they were committed to winning, that I wouldn't have to play the rest of my career on non-contending teams, these were not the types of offseasons I had anticipated." He wouldn't have to tear them apart, but tell them how unhappy is. Tell them this is not the situation they had described to him. Subtly, gently, without using the word, call them liars.

Photo by Michael Baron

Nobody else could do this. There isn't anyone else on the team with bona fides in the league or the cache in the franchise to put the Wilpons on the spot like that. Matt Harvey, the only other player on the roster with anything approaching Wright's star power, can't say anything without seeming like an impetuous young player. Wright is widely viewed, by fans and the rest of the league, as having suffered under the Mets ineptitude for some time now. He'd face little to no backlash from the fanbase; he would, in fact, probably be praised for it. Real, genuine frustration and anger from David Wright would bring the clamor from the team's loyal legion of fans to a fever pitch, and a failure to act on it in a serious manner would carry with it a pretty serious connotation of an inability, perhaps financially, to successfully run the team. It may not work, but that public pressure is the only leverage Wright could have in trying to change his own future.

Now, some of you are probably thinking that this is an unreasonable thing. "Would you go on the radio and publicly denounce your own employers?" you are asking, sneering at me smugly, silently loathing the very thought of this article. My answer: if I had a guaranteed contract and a no trade clause, I sure would. He has a lot at stake: his future, his legacy, the effect never winning a championship might have on his Hall of Fame prospects. And, with the no trade clause firmly in place, what recourse do the Wilpons have over Wright? What are they going to do, bench him? We'd raid and pillage Citi Field, and they know it.

Speak up, David.