Catching up with the Captain: Wright talks '24 Mets, HOF ballot

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- After he was named the Mets’ president of baseball operations last October, David Stearns placed a call to former Major Leaguer David Wright, the team’s living legend from 2004-18, to get a feel on his availability to work in the front office.

Wright indicated he enjoyed being a father and wanted to continue to do work for the team on a part-time basis. In fact, he was at Clover Park on Tuesday to talk to some of the current Mets players and do some marketing for the club.

“[Stearns] kind of asked what I had interest in doing. I said, ‘Well, if you are asking about Daddy time [and] my five-year-old's softball team, my seven-year-old girl’s soccer team, I can talk about that. I’m not sure how much help I’m going to be on the baseball ops side,” Wright said. “[Stearns] has it under control with the people he hired himself.”

As an observer from the outside, Wright has watched what the Mets have done this offseason, and he likes what they have before Opening Day.

“It looks like they have greatly improved their depth, which is something that has been lacking the last few years,” Wright said. “So I think, depth-wise, they are in a much better spot. Now, you might not have premier marquee names on the front end of the rotation that you had going into last year, but when you are playing 162 games and with the injuries throughout baseball now, I think that depth is going to be pretty important come the middle of the summer.”

The Mets weren’t the only thing on Wright's mind. He discussed the Baseball Hall of Fame voting and felt that former teammate Billy Wagner should be enshrined in Cooperstown this summer. This past January, Wagner was in his ninth year of eligibility and received 73.8 percent of the vote, which was short of the 75 percent needed to be elected to Cooperstown.

“I don’t think there is any doubt,” Wright said. “I’m certainly not the end-all, be-all of the Hall of Fame balloting and the ins and outs of who should be in and who should be out, but in my eyes -- when I think of Hall of Fame relievers -- Billy Wagner is right up there on the top of the list.”

Wright was on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time this year and received 6.2 percent of the vote. He said he is grateful to continue to be on the ballot. Wright had a great career with the Mets. He ranks first in team history in runs scored (949), hits (1,777) and RBIs (970) and second in Wins Above Replacement behind Tom Seaver (76.1) with 49.2, according to Baseball Reference.

Asked if he is a Hall of Famer, Wright said, “Up until a couple of months ago, I never even thought about it, because that is not the reason I played baseball. When I wore this uniform on a daily basis -- yes, we did it for a living and were compensated handsomely for doing it -- I enjoyed it. I loved it. … When I look back on it, it was an incredible honor to make that five percent [on the Hall of Fame ballot].

“But I also think things are changing. I’m not sure if it’s in a way people like or dislike. I think writers and fans and people in the game are starting to understand that some of the best players -- this is excluding me -- didn’t necessarily hit the milestones that a lot of the greats from the past and different decades hit when they played. It’s an interesting debate that I didn’t know much about until a couple of months ago. It’s a fun one to have.”