David Wright will continue to significantly influence the Mets, who look to continue benefiting from the knowledge, leadership and energy he provided as one of the organization's most beloved players.
Late Monday afternoon, the Mets announced Wright will serve as a special advisor to chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon and general manager Brodie Van Wagenen. The role will allow the retired third baseman a chance to be directly involved in front-office discussions regarding player personnel and development.
"Playing in [New York] and for this team was a dream come true," Wright said via the Mets. "I look forward to contributing and taking on the challenges of this new role."
While making this announcement, the Mets revealed the club and Wright mutually agreed to his release from the current roster. Financial specifics of this agreement were not announced. The seven-time All-Star had been owed $27 million over what were the remaining two seasons of his contract.
Wright gained a taste of his new role when he joined the Mets' contingent at last month's Winter Meetings in Las Vegas. Instead of simply assuming the figurehead position teams often given highly regarded former players, Wright is expected to serve an active role within the front office.
When Wright joined the Mets at the Winter Meetings, Van Wagenen said: "David is about as special of a guy as you can have. We're building this organization around people. I want to have people who can give me insight into what's important in a teammate, what's important in bullpen arms that he's faced, what does he want to see in lineup construction. So he's an invaluable source for me to be able to give me a perspective that I never want to lose touch with, which is the player perspective."
Though his career was cut short by the back, neck and shoulder injuries that forced him to miss the majority of the last four seasons, Wright still retired as the Mets' franchise leader in hits, RBIs, runs, total bases and extra-base hits.
Selected by the Mets in the first round of the 2001 Draft, Wright debuted in 2004 and earned the first of his seven National League All-Star selections in 2006, the year he and his teammates reached the NL Championship Series.
Wright was informed this past summer he would never again be physically capable of playing on a regular basis. But he enjoyed the thrill of playing in front of a raucous, sold-out home crowd that filled Citi Field on Sept. 29 to see him return to the lineup for the first time since 2016 and celebrate the final game of his career.
"I can't sit here and tell you that I'm good with where I'm at right now -- that would be a lie and that would be false," Wright said after that game. "You love something so much and you want to continue that. ... I'm at peace with the work and the time and the effort and the dedication that I've put into this. I'm certainly not at peace with the end result."
Though he may never be comfortable with how his playing career ended, Wright's new role allows him to extend his commitment to the Mets and their fans.