David Wright expected to retire after 2018

David Wright, the New York Mets third baseman who has been plagued with injuries the past several years, indicated today that he expected to retire at the end of 2018 after starting one last game at third base for the Mets at the end of September.

Its sad but not unexpected news. Wright, 35, was a legitimately elite player who performed at an MVP level early in his career, combining on base ability, power, speed and quality defense at the hot corner. He has struggled to stay, or even get, on the field the past half-decade, however — after playing 112 games in 2013 and 134 games in 2014, he played in 38 games in 2015, 37 games in 2016, and hasn’t appeared in the majors the past two seasons.

Wright currently sports a career .296/.376/.491 slash line, with a career bWAR of 50.4 and a career fWAR of 52.3. He will present an interesting Hall of Fame case when he’s eligible, as he was clearly on the path to the Hall before he was waylaid by injuries. His bWAR is 26th best among third basemen in MLB history, and JAWS has him 23rd all-time. Wright average 5 wins per season from 2005-13 — All Star level performance for almost a decade.

Best of luck to Wright in his post-playing career.