David Wright Should Only Play 3rd Base In An Emergency

NYDailyNews.com:

Eight months after surgery for his neck injury, David Wright still hasn’t thrown a baseball, and it’s starting to feel inevitable that a move to first base may be best for both him and the Mets. 

Yet Wright said on Tuesday that no one from the organization has even mentioned it as a possibility, and Terry Collins downplayed it as a move that wouldn’t necessitate any adjustment period. 

“If we decide he needs to get some ground balls at first base, that can be done late in spring training,” Collins said. “He’s such a good athlete, he’ll catch on to that easily.” 

Perhaps that’s true, although as recently as a couple of years ago we saw Alex Rodriguez, once a Gold Glove shortstop, look surprisingly awkward playing first base, to the point where the Yankees gave up on the idea.

To me, this is a no-brainer. The way things have been going for David Wright the last couple of years, your damn right the Mets should have him trying out at 1st base. In fact, to take it even further, if I'm the Mets, I get Keith Hernandez down to spring training immediately and have Wright go through a month's worth of 1st-base boot camp with one of best defensive 1st basemen of all-time. After all, can anyone really see Wright staying injury-free this year? Much less playing 3rd base with that weak arm of his? The best chance to keep Wright healthy is to DH him whenever possible and let him back up Lucas Duda at 1st. And then make Jose Reyes your starting 3rd -baseman.