NBA

David Wright is ‘Beyond Thrilled’ to Stay with Mets, Feels Confident About Recruiting Free Agents to New York

It’s official: David Wright has signed up to stay with the New York Mets, most likely for the rest of his career. The Mets third baseman signed his $138 million, eight-year contract — the largest in team history — this week.
Wright has great expectations for the Mets moving forward and explains in the following interview how his new deal came to place. David Wright joined WFAN in New York with Mike Francesa to discuss being thrilled to finish his career with the New York Mets, the possibility of leaving the Mets last season, the Mets convincing him that the team will get better, feeling comfortable in recruiting players to New York and his dream to win a World Series with the Mets.

Congrats on the new deal that will keep you in New York for the rest of your career:

“Thank you very much. This is the place I wanted to be. I made that very well known and I am beyond thrilled to be able to go and put on that same uniform from day one to that last day.”

Did you, at any point last year, think about the possibility of leaving the Mets? Did it get that far?

“No. Never even entered my mind. I met with Jeff Wilpon down in Miami the last series of the regular season and we were going to go out to a nice restaurant and a nice dinner and just talk about what the negotiations would be like. The nice restaurants were closed, so it was too late. We went to this burger and beer joint down in Miami and we sat there and I was as brutally honest with him as I could be. He was honest with me, which I really appreciated. I had some very difficult questions to ask him and he answered them to the best that he could, and that kind of got the ball rolling. And then it must have been the first, second, third week of the offseason, Sandy Alderson flew down to Norfolk, Va., my home, and same thing. We played some golf, had a late lunch and early dinner and I had some difficult questions to ask Sandy even before the contract stuff started. We went through the minor league players going player by player. We went through some free agents, not just 2013, but 2014, 2015, 2016 — the types of players that Sandy is looking for. Trades. … He really mapped it all out for me, and after that meeting and after seeing the passion and energy in both of their voices, I knew we could get a deal done.”

Did the Mets really convince you it will get better here?

“Anybody can sit there and say something, but they meant it. You could tell by the tone of their voice. You could tell by the energy of their voice, really, the kind of passion in their voice. Maybe it’s the police chief father that I have been able to kind of understand ‘BS’ when someone is ‘BSing’ you. This was the opposite. You could tell they were genuine. They meant it, and just the passion and fire in their voice was what really convinced me that, within the hours of talking about our minor league system and different players around the league.”

Do you feel comfortable recruiting a player to the Mets now?

“No question. No question. For me having worn this blue and orange for nine years, obviously it means a lot to me and I will do whatever this organization asks of me to do as far as recruiting. But yes, I feel like we are in a position now that if they need me to actively recruit somebody, that not only do I feel comfortable doing that, but I feel confident that the pitch I will be giving I truly mean.”

What’s your dream for the franchise moving forward?

“That’s easy. [Francesa: World Series?] Yeah. You think about winning a world championship here. You see the way that even bench players from ’86 are just, you know, are iconic now. I had some of these guys from ’86 as coaches and even friends. That’s what New Yorkers want; they want winners. Forget about the individual accomplishments, you can have that. New York and the fans, they remember winners. They remember World Championships.”

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