What To Do When David Wright Returns?

The Mets are playing great baseball at the moment, maybe the best ball they have played all season long. But as we inch closer to David Wright’s return, which is targeted at late July the question that still remains, is what do the Mets do when the 5-time All-Star returns?

The combination of Daniel Murphy, Justin Turner, Ruben Tejada, and Lucas Duda have filled in well and combined to plug up the holes in the lineup left by Wright and first basemen Ike Davis.

With Ike Davis’ return not anywhere in sight and even potentially lost for the rest of the 2011 season, there are a number of options the Mets have to compliment Wright when he returns.

Given that the Mets have relied on timely hitting, hitting with runners in scoring position, and coming up with the big 2 out hit, I believe when Wright does return the Mets will sacrifice a little bit defensively for a bigger return offensively.

Right now Daniel Murphy is getting the bulk of the playing time at third base, I think when Wright comes back, Murphy goes across the diamond back to first base, where he has been primarily since Ike Davis went down.

The next domino tat could fall in place when Wright comes back, is Justin Turner taking over the second base job full time, the 26-year-old has done an outstanding job all season long and is a given to get on base at least once a game. Last night, was the first game in 29 games that Turner did not reach base safely.

Both, David Wright and Jose Reyes should be in the lineup, as it stands now Manager Terry Collins targeted Reyes return date at July 22^nd. So given this news, expect Ruben Tejada to ride the pine, or even possibly be demoted to Triple-A to get regular everyday playing time.

           

With a guy as young and as talented as Tejada, he’s a guy who needs to have regular at-bats and is someone the Mets can’t let rot on the bench or be used in pinch-hitting duty.

There are a number of scenarios the Mets have, it will certainly be interesting to see what route both GM Sandy Alderson and Manager Terry Collins decide to go when David Wright makes his return. Let’s not forget the Mets are still in the heat of a tightly packed Wildcard race.