PORT ST. LUCIE — The Captain was back on the field Monday with his teammates.
David Wright took part in a brief workout with about 16 of his teammates on Field 2 at the Mets spring training complex.
Wright did some light running and then fielded ground balls for about 10 minutes at third base. He did not throw. After catching the ball he would underhand flip the baseball to a trainer who was standing near third base.
Wright aggressively charged the balls and smoothly fielded them.
Each small step forward for Wright is big progress, and he was in good spirits after the workout.
Following the session Wright spoke to bench coach Dick Scott, who watched Wright closely during the workout, and then jogged off the field, back into the clubhouse.
His teammates were thrilled to see him back on the diamond.
“It was great to see,’’ catcher Travis d’Arnaud told The Post. “Any time you get to share the field with him, it’s great. He plays so hard and he has devoted his whole life to New York. He’s such an awesome person and it’s so great to see him back out there doing what he loves.’’
Wright played in just 75 games the last two years because of neck and back woes and underwent neck surgery on June 16. He has been here about two weeks, but this was the first day he took the field in the voluntary workouts, which are not open to the public. Wright did not take the field for batting practice with the other players.
“I think I really have some good baseball left in me,’’ Wright told The Post on Jan. 19 in Virginia Beach, Va.
He is going to take this comeback in methodical fashion. He has been hitting in the batting cage since around Christmas.
The big test for Wright will be when he begins throwing the baseball. Because of his neck injury, Wright had difficulty raising his right arm above his shoulder to make the throws from third base and had to drop down and flip the ball to first, an ineffective throw. But now with the neck surgery, Wright is hoping to be able to regain his throwing form.
“I need to take a lot of ground balls at third base, and I need to get a lot of at-bats,’’ Wright said in January of his spring-training goals.
In addition to home games, Terry Collins told The Post that Wright will see action in minor league games here as well once he is ready to play so that he can get the extra work he needs.
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