In the Men’s Fitness article about David Wright and his spinal stenosis, we learn about what Wright must endure to step on the field each and every day. 

In order to step on the field after his spinal stenosis diagnosis, he had to rebuild his core to take pressure off of his back. He had to learn a new swing so the torque wouldn’t hurt his back further. He then had to learn a new pregame routine. He shows up at 1:00 for a 7:00 game. While he does less baseball activities now pregame, he does a lot more work just to get his back ready to play in a game. Read that again. It takes Wright six hours to get ready for a night game. 

That’s just getting ready for a single game. Throughout the offseason, Wright has continued his grueling rehab and workouts. It’s incredible to think of how much work goes into allowing Wright to play one game let alone a full 162 game schedule. 

Reading all of this, there are some conclusions that can be drawn. First, there is simply no way Wright can play in a day game this year. To get ready for a 1:00 P.M. game, he would have to arrive at the ballpark at 7:00 A.M. to start working. That’s if he’s recuperated enough from the prior night’s game to start working out that early in the morning. 

The next conclusion we can draw from this is Terry Collins is going to let Wright play in as many games as Wright believes he can play. Regardless of whether Wright is set to play, he has to put the work in each and every day. If Wright is going to put the work in, he’s going to want to play. Collins trusts his players, and he will trust that Wright is ready to play each time he arrives at the ballpark and declares himself fit to play. 

The final conclusion is we really have no idea how many games Wright will be able to play in 2016. Wright is uncharted territory. Typically, an injury like his forces a player to retire. Wright hasn’t. Instead, he’s rehabbing. He’s putting the work in both on game days and off days. 

Wright is doing everything humanly possible to play. In 2016, each time he announces he’s ready to go, Collins will pencil his name into the lineup. How many times?  We don’t know yet. How will Wright play when he does get to play?  We don’t know that either. 

The only thing we do know is Wright will do everything he can do to get out there on the field and play. We’ll have to settle for that right now.