David Wright to Likely Get Day Off Saturday

After making an early exit during the Blue Jays rout of the Mets Friday night, Terry Collins told the media that he will likely give David Wright the day off this afternoon at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Why in the world would the Mets manager sit one of the hottest hitters in all of baseball? Well, he’s got a head cold.

Even though he was dealing with the cold before last night’s series opener, New York’s superstar third baseman claimed that his illness is “more annoying than anything.” So, he was still able to get himself in the lineup Friday night for the team’s first interleague game of

the year, but once the game got out of reach, Collins decided to yank his third baseman and give him a breather. Outside of missing three games after he fractured his pinkie, Wright has played in every game this season, and actually came to Collins before they began their 20 games in 20 days to see if he could get a blow at some point to recharge his battery for the summer.

Coupling his illness with a day game after a night game, Collins thought it was an easy decision to give his third baseman a rest today. Collins is looking to get most of his regulars some rest over the next few days, especially since this is only the second time since 2006 the Mets have played on artificial turf. Ike Davis got the night off yesterday, today will be Wright’s turn, and Daniel Murphy will get a day off Monday in Pittsburgh. To give Wright more of a rest, Collins said that he will probably insert him back in the lineup on Sunday as the team’s designated hitter.

Just how hard must it be for Collins to sit David Wright? We all know that the Mets third baseman is leading all of Major League Baseball with a .409 batting average, and this is the latest a player has carried a .400+ batting average into the season since Chipper Jones was hitting .414 through the middle of June in 2008, but there’s more. Elias Sports Bureau reported that not only is Wright the only Met to be hitting .400 after the team’s first 30 games of the season, but the last right-handed hitter to boast a .411 average and .513 on-base% through his first 150 plate appearances was Rico Carty of Atlanta, all the way back in 1970. So, just in case you were wondering how epic Wright’s hot streak is…it’s pretty epic.

This is a good time for Terry Collins to give some of his regular’s a rest; as he gives each of his starters a day off, lets not forget that their lineup will soon be at full strength once again; Ruben Tejada is scheduled to come off the disabled list on May 22nd after rehabbing his strained quad, and it looks as if Josh Thole has been making steps toward his return as well, having a few headache-free days in a row. Jason Bay is on the comeback trail as well, re-starting baseball activity after fracturing a rib. So, it’s better to give Wright, Murphy, and Davis days off now, so when the rest of the starters come back off the disabled list, they will be at full strength, and well rested for their longest streak of games this season.