David Wright Has Stress Fracture in His Lower Back

Wright will get a second opinion before making decision on disabled list

David Wright has a stress fracture in his lower back.  The All-Star third basemen learned of the injury during an MRI Monday morning, Mets G.M. Sandy Alderson announced later that day.

Wright's back has been bothering him for some time, but he said that the news came as a shock to him.

"I was shocked when they had me meet with the back doctors and spine doctors," Wright said.  "It's frustrating and disappointing."

Well, we spent a little bit of time talking about the good things happening to the Mets on Monday morning, a decision that's looking like a master stroke at this hour.

As of right now, the team is waiting for a second opinion before making any decisions about placing him on the disabled list. He will be out of the lineup indefinitely, more than a week based on what Alderson said, which makes it seem like that seems like the best course of action.

For one thing, the team would be shorthanded on the field if they didn't replace Wright on the roster. For another, we're all too familiar with the Mets trying to soft-pedal their way through injuries instead of simply biting the bullet.

The news comes as a punch to the gut to a team that's been playing its best baseball of the season in the last two weeks. Wright hadn't been adding much to the effort, but the feeling was that it was just a matter of time before he got himself back on track.

It is a lot harder to believe that at this hour. Wright is going to be away from the lineup while he rests his back and guessing about what will come with his recovery from an injury of this nature is a fool's exercise, even if the team doesn't believe this is going to be a long term injury. 

If there's any good thing about Monday's revelation, it is that Wright's mediocre offensive performance is now a bit easier to understand. He didn't try to excuse his performance, to his credit, but it is hard to imagine there's no correlation.

It doesn't make it any easier to lose him from the lineup, especially with Ike Davis already out, but at least we know that he didn't just lose the ability to hit. 

We also know that all of the improvements made by the organization this season haven't done a thing to help the Mets' luck. Jason Bay, Angel Pagan, Bobby Parnell, Ronny Paulino, Chris Young and Davis have all spent time on the disabled list thus far which makes their 19-21 record all the more impressive.

It also makes anyone who took Carlos Beltran or Jose Reyes in the last Met to get injured pool look like a genius. That's a small victory given the news of the day, but its a victory all the same.

Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.

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