Just Mets

David Wright’s lost season in 2014 has been a subject of discussion going back to the off-season. Questions about his health, his durability as well as his age have followed the 32 year old third baseman after he posted the lowest slugging percentage and OPS of his 10-year career.

While those are all certainly fair concerns, the SNY telecast on Friday provided split screens of David Wright, illustrating how his swing has changed from last season. At the very least, it illustrates clear mechanical differences between then and now…

As you can see in the shots, Wright’s hands are lower this Spring Training (left) than during last season (right). “He tends to want to raise his hands too high…” Keith Hernandez said on the telecast.

Hernandez refers to the swing on the left as “more of a home run swing,” and calls the right “more of a base hit swing,” citing that he’s more level in that at-bat…

However, on the left you can see that David is keeping his front shoulder in as compared to the right and that on the “home run swing” illustrated above, there is more rotation on that front foot, freeing up the hips and allowing Wright to hit for more power.

“He’s gotta keep his shoulder in,” Hernandez said. “If he keeps his front shoulder in, he’ll hit.”

It’s certainly possible Wright’s adjusted swing this Spring is a reflection of his work with new hitting coach Kevin Long, who has been working individually with Wright since the off-season. I also wonder if David was flying open with his hips last season as an attempt to dodge the pain he was experiencing in his shoulder, either consciously or subconsciously.

In any event, it’s clear Wright and Long have identified a mechanical difference and are working to get his swing to where it was when he was healthy in previous years when he was one of the more productive third basemen in baseball.