David Wright enjoying 'perfect' Mets job as occasional front-office advisor
David Wright, special advisor to Mets COO Jeff Wilpon and GM Brodie Van Wagenen, visits New York Tech baseball and softball practice at Long Island Sports Hub on Jan. 25, 2019. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — David Wright is happy with his current occasional front-office advisory role and isn’t looking for anything larger or more permanent, he said Wednesday.
Visiting Mets spring training for about a week, Wright has conferred with general manager Brodie Van Wagenen and his inner circle, spoken to minor-league hitters and hitting coaches and generally relished being back in a baseball environment, which hasn’t been a regular thing for him since he ended his playing career in 2018.
“For what I’m kind of looking for at this stage, it’s perfect for me,” said Wright, whose official title is special adviser to the chief operating officer and general manager. “I went to the winter meetings [in December] for a couple of days, and Brodie and his staff have been outstanding and kind of allowing me to kind of come and go as my schedule dictates, which I’m appreciative of.
“It brought back that competitive fire that you miss when you’re away from it. Coming to the winter meetings, coming to spring training for a week, I’ll go to New York for maybe a week here and there during the summer — just when you really start really, really missing it, you get to come back and be around the guys and talk baseball, which I love.”
Does he want more?
“This is perfect for me right now,” Wright, who has two young children, said. “I’m somewhat involved. Not regularly by any stretch of the imagination, but I stay in touch with the front office. I stay in touch with a lot of the players still.”
You can count Wright among those who are fans of Mets manager Luis Rojas, who Wright got to know some toward the end of his career, when he spent a lot of time rehabbing in Port St. Lucie. Rojas managed High-A St. Lucie — including a Wright rehab stint — in 2015-16.
“Having that calm demeanor I think soothes the clubhouse,” Wright said. “To have that kind of presence — and to have the baseball background that he has and just that even demeanor — I think is going to be very beneficial, especially in New York.”
