Wright makes changes to offseason routine
Mets captain focuses on flexibility with the hope of avoiding injury
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Now 31 years old, David Wright is not the same athlete he used to be. Twice in the past three years, Wright missed significant time due to injury -- once when he suffered a stress fracture in his lower back in 2011, then again when he strained his hamstring last August. And that does not include the intercostal strain that knocked him out of the World Baseball Classic last spring, threatening his status for Opening Day.
As a result, Wright has taken a hard look at his offseason routine, changing things up in an attempt to stay healthy. Rather than focus on speed and strength, Wright spent time this winter working on things he never before considered "all that important."
"Usually in the offseason, you go out there and you try to get bigger, faster, stronger," Wright said. "I've kind of realized with the hamstring, with the lower back thing that I had, that some flexibility needs to be incorporated. Maybe it's not always the best way to try to see how much weight you can lift. Maybe it's more important to do some flexibility stuff, do some stuff that maybe I didn't think about when I was younger, because you could pretty much roll out of bed and not get hurt.
"Now that you're a little bit older with some more miles on you, you have to think of a different way as far as tuning up your body for a season. I think that I've made a nice adjustment, and I'm excited to see how that plays out in a long year."
By far the longest-tenured Met, Wright is also signed on longer than anyone else in blue and orange. His current deal runs through 2020, potentially giving him 17 years of service time all with one team.
For now, Wright is a 10-year veteran with one career playoff appearance on his resume. That is another thing he would like to change in 2014.
"I feel like I blinked and I'm 10 years into a Major League career," Wright said. "Obviously, I'd like to win before I get to the point where I just feel like I can't do it at a high level anymore.
"Of course you feel that urgency when you feel like just yesterday you were 21 years old. All of a sudden, now you're 31. I still feel like I've got a lot in the tank, but at the same time, I know how fast these 10 years went by. I hope these next seven for me don't go by nearly as fast."