David Wright on DL; Out at Least 6-8 Weeks

David Wright was placed on the disabled list Friday with a herniated disk in his neck. We will likely not see him on a baseball field for some time.

Wright will require six-to-eight weeks of rest, refraining from all baseball activity. So even if he is healthy in two months, add a few more weeks to get back to speed. So we are looking at mid-August at the earliest.

“It’s pretty shocking to hear about the length of time needed to get better,” Terry Collins said, according to ESPN New York.

Wright underwent medication and an injection to the neck over the past week to alleviate the pain, but it did not work. For now, the Mets hope rest will help him avoid surgery. We’ll see about that.

The Mets do not think this is related to his spinal stenosis. We’ll see about that as well.

For now, Wilmer Flores is expected to get most of the playing time at third. He is just back from a DL stint himself, but was not tearing the cover off the ball before that. He is hitting just .167 with one home run. But Flores says things will be different now that he role is defined.

“You don’t want to have anybody get hurt,” Flores said. “It happened. Since I got here, I’ve been waiting for an opportunity. It’s an opening. Knowing that you could be in the lineup every day, it changes everything.”

We’ll see about that.

If Flores cannot handle the job and the Mets do not want to make a trade, their best bet might be to shift Neil Walker to third and bring up Dilson Herrera. He is indeed tearing the cover off the ball in Vegas — hitting .288 with eight homers.

As far as David Wright, it is sad to watch a once-great player go through this. If Wright can get back on the field, it is clear he will never be the player he used to be.