Back in 2008, Bill James, the man who was at the forefront of the revolution of the use of advanced statistics in Major League Baseball, said in a 60 Minutes interview that David Wright would be a top pick on his “dream team.”

At that time, Wright was coming off a 30/30 season that also saw him win his first Gold Glove.  In total, Wright hit .325/.416/.546 with 42 doubles, one triple, 30 homers, and 107 RBI.  He posted an astonishingly high 8.3 WAR, which serves not just as a career best, but also as the highest WAR a Mets position player has ever posted.  Wright was just 24 years old, and he seemed well on his way to Cooperstown.

A lot has happened over the past decade.  In 2009, the Mets moved into Citi Field.  Under its original configuration with the high outfield walls and the needlessly deep right-center field, the ballpark was an affront to what exactly made Wright a great hitter.  After that were two injury plagued seasons that served as a harbinger of things to come.

In 2011, Wright spent over two months on the disabled list with a stress fracture in his lower back.  In 2013, Wright saw an All Star season derailed as he missed 45 games due to a right hamstring strain.

The next time Wright would suffer a right hamstring strain was on April 14, 2015.  Initially, everyone thought Wright would bounce back and help lead the team to their first postseason appearance in almost a decade.  It didn’t turn out that way.  Wright’s recovery from the hamstring strain was taking longer than expected leading to subsequent examinations.  Those examinations revealed Wright was suffering from spinal stenosis, a condition that will forever limit him.

Still, there was hope for Wright.  After missing 115 games, he would return to the Mets, and in his first at-bat, he would hit a home run.  As the Mets pushed towards the postseason, Wright hit a very respectable .277/.381/.437 with four homers and 13 RBI in 30 games.  While you knew he was going to be limited due to the spinal stenosis, there was at least some evidence that Wright could be a productive player.

Those hopes were fortified early in the 2016 season.  Through 24 games, Wright was hitting .258/.405/.472 with four homers and eight RBI.  While he couldn’t play each and every game, and while there were some holes in his game, he was putting up good numbers.  From there, Wright’s season began to fall apart.  Over the next 13 games, he hit .167/.231/.375 while striking out 42.3% of the time.

Wright had a new injury this time.  He had a herniated cervical disc requiring him to undergo season ending surgery.   This forced the Mets to move on from him and eventually sign Jose Reyes to be the team’s everyday third baseman.

Wright was gone, but he wasn’t forgotten.  There were the rehabilitation updates.  The Reyes signing sparked the nostalgia of seeing the two players celebrating the team clinching the NL East back in 2006.  Then Wright was able to return to Citi Field to watch the games from the bullpen.  However, he was not able to even come close to stepping foot on the field.  With that, Wright was was never overlooked or forgotten.

It is not forgotten that he was one of the top players in the game, possibly the best player in the game.  However, times are changed, and to a certain extent no one can reasonably expect anything from him.  We were reminded of that again on Sunday night.

During the offseason, MLB Network runs down the Top 10 players at each position.  Various analysts contribute their opinions of who should be in that Top 10.  The final ranking is then determined by “The Shredder.”  Here were the list of third baseman considered for the 2017 season:

Wright wasn’t even in consideration, nor should he have been.  Wright can no longer be in the discussion for anything until we see him step foot on the baseball field again.  Based upon reports on his rehabilitation, that should happen during Spring Training.  That’s great news for Mets fans everywhere.  Still, those Spring Training games will do little to alleviate the now heightened concerns Wright can withstand the rigors of a 162 game schedule.  Based upon his start to last season, even Wright starting the season off well will do little in terms of the Mets ability to count on Wright producing over the course of the season.

Overall, no matter what Wright does, it will do nothing to elevate his diminished status in the game.