The idea of the franchise cornerstone has really faded over the past few years. Recently, there have been many free agents darting from their long-time homes at the size of offers from other teams (Albert Pujols), or leveraging their current deals into more years at a higher salary (CC Sabathia.) By no means did Wright leave a huge sum of money on the table, as he will receive a $17.25 million AAS until 2020. But, I am sure a team starved of a marquee third baseman in a league noticeably thin at the hot corner would have offered him an AAS upwards of $20 million. The Evan Longoria extension was nice, but his original deal took him through 2016, so that didn’t exactly need to be worried about until a few years from now. Wright’s contract was the much more pressing issue: he had one year left on his deal.
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| David Wright, Met 'till 2020 |
You wanted Wright to stay. Everyone did. Wright is the type of player everyone wants on their team, but that no one wanted to see leave the Mets. In the wake of the Miami Marlins dumping everyone on their team not named Giancarlo and the Dodgers spending money out their ears, all we needed was the Mets trading Wright to a big-market team with the money and willingness to sign him for the integrity of the game to be lost. Take recent retiree, and archetype franchise player, Chipper Jones. Not even considering his status as a possible Hall of Famer, Braves fans will always love Jones as a player and a public figure. He was a leader both on and off the field for his team, and accrued that status because he spent his career in one place. The Braves were his team. David Wright's new deal, keeping him a Met until age 38, hopefully will do the same for a similar player and solidify his status as Mr. Met.
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Wright would also not exactly have been scorned were he to leave Citi Field behind for greener pastures, either. After the departure of shortstop Jose Reyes last season, the only real group that would have chided Wright and the organization letting him go would have been Mets fans. The team is in a state of disorder at the moment; they only boast a couple of impact prospects (Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler) surrounded by a less-than-impressive collection of role players. This Mets team is not one that will contend in 2013, so it is definitely a positive that Wright signed on to man third base through the team's tough times with the obvious idea that they will contend in the (hopefully near) future.
For a fan base that constantly feels overshadowed by the success of the New York Yankees, this has to be looked at as a huge win. Wright's pledge to stay, during a time when the team will not be successful on the field, no less, has to be looked at as good for baseball. Although free agency is exciting, his deal raises the hope that other stars nearing free agency will sign on to stay with their original teams for long periods of time.
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