David Wright has resumed baseball activity

David Wright, who was shut down on September 8 due to continued pain in his left shoulder, has resumed baseball activity.

Wright told Adam Rubin of ESPN New York that he’s started to swing a bat and that his activity should increase soon.

Wright plans to head to Phoenix in January to work with new Mets hitting coach Kevin Long.

After the season, it wasn’t certain that Wright would be able to avoid surgery for his shoulder injury, but rest and rehab has strengthened the shoulder to the point where surgery is now off the table.

Wright, who was dealing with stretched out ligaments in his left shoulder for the entire second half of 2014, failed to hit a home run after the All-Star break. Overall, he hit .269/.324/.374 with 8 home runs.

Thoughts:

While Wright claimed during the season that the shoulder injury wasn’t an excuse for his poor performance, he admitted after he was shut down that the injury negatively impacted him and that he should’ve shut it down sooner than he did.

The hope is that the majority of Wright’s woes last year were due to the injury, and it seems fair to draw that conclusion when taking his performance in both 2012 and 2013 into account.

In 2013, Wright hit .307/.390/.514 with 18 home runs.

In 2012, Wright hit .306/.391/.492 with 21 home runs.

Wright being healthy should allow him to produce at a level similar to 2012 and 2013, and the fact that the Mets moved in the right-center fences may perhaps boost Wright’s power numbers a bit from what they were in 2012 and 2013.

Since the move from Shea Stadium to Citi Field, Wright’s yearly home run totals have dipped, and his home runs to the opposite field (and right-center in particular) have become rare sights.

Entering the 2015 season, the hopeful return of Wright’s power – more than his ability to hit for average – will be the most important thing to keep an eye on.