Mets Midseason Review: Third Base

A little more than halfway through the 2012 season, the New York Mets find themselves in third place in the National League East, 4.5 games behind the division-leading Washington Nationals. The team is also just a half-game behind the Atlanta Braves for the second wild card spot and 1.5 games back of the Cincinnati Reds for the first wild card spot in the National League. In short, they are very much in the hunt for at least a spot in the wild card play-in game.

The Mets' infield has been a mix of good and bad, but David Wright, of course, has been its best performer. Wright's numbers are not just an improvement over his past three seasons — they're arguably the best numbers of his career. His .418 wOBA is just barely shy of the .420 mark he posted in 2007, but his park-adjusted 169 wRC+ easily exceeds even his best seasons of the past.

Wright has played in 82 of the team's 86 games, a fairly remarkable number considering he missed just a couple of games with a broken bone in one of his fingers early in the season.

Perhaps some fans would be disappointed if Wright maintains his current pace for home runs and stolen bases over the course of a full season: 21 HR and 17 SB. Such concerns would be foolish, though, since he's been such a productive hitter that he could very well be a more valuable offensive asset with those numbers than he was when he hit 30 HR and stole 34 bases in 2007.