When David Wright was diagnosed with the spinal stenosis, the comparisons to Don Mattingly were quick.  Sadly, with each passing day Wright is unable to even throw a baseball, those comparisons become more and more apt.

Both were Hall of Fame talents that have seen their careers fall short of that mark because of their injuries.  Mattingly was forced to retired a 34, and if Wright is unable to play another game, his career will be over at 33.  They were both corner infielders for New York teams, and they both became team captains.  They are both beloved by New York fans.  With so many similarities between the two, the question is which is the better player.

In his 14 year career, Mattingly hit .307/.358/.471 with 442 doubles, 20 triples, 222 homers, 1,099 RBI, and 14 stolen bases.  His 162 game averages were 40 doubles, two triples, 20 homers, 100 RBI, and one stolen base.  He was named to six All Star teams and won nine Gold Gloves and three Silver Sluggers.  Mattingly was the 1985 American League MVP, and he had three top five MVP finishes.

On the advanced metrics side, Mattingly had a career 42.2 WAR, 127 OPS+, and a 124 wRC+.  More than that, Mattingly was a genuine superstar in the mid 80s, who was widely considered one of the best players in all of baseball.

For his part, Wright has played 13 years for the New York Mets hitting .296/.376/.491 with 390 doubles, 26 triples, 242 homes, 970 RBI, and 196 stolen bases.  His 162 game averages are 40 doubles, three triples, 25 homers, 99 RBI, and 20 stolen bases.  He has been named to seven All Star teams and won two Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers.  Wright never won an MVP, and he had just one top five finish.

On the advanced metrics side, Wright had a career 49.9 WAR, 133 OPS+, and a 133 wRC+.  Like Mattingly, Wright was a genuine superstar who was once named the Face of the MLB and who Bill James once said he would begin a franchise with Wright.

And at least in this debate, James is 100% correct.  Between Mattingly and Wright, Wright is the better player.  Looking at the traditional and objective stats, Mattingly leads Wright in batting average, doubles, and RBI.  This means Wright leads in OBP, slugging, triples, homers, and stolen bases.  While the two are reasonably close in most catergories, Wright added the dimension of speed to his game.

When looking at 162 game averages, Mattingly has the edge in just batting average and RBI, and with RBI, he only has an edge by one RBI per season.  Year in and year out, Wright was the better player.

This is where many people will want to cite Mattingly’s Gold Gloves and MVP award.  Now, it is fair to saw Mattingly was the better defender, but being a better defender does not make one a better overall player.  Certainly, that’s where advanced stats like WAR come in handy as it analyzes a player’s complete game.

Not only does Wright have a higher career WAR, he averages a higher WAR per season.  For his career, Wright averaged a 3.8 WAR to Mattingly’s 3.0.  Another consideration is Wright has had better year’s than Mattingly’s MVP year.

In Mattingly’s 1985 MVP season, he hit .324/.371/.567 with 48 doubles, three triples, 35 homers, 145 RBI, and two stolen bases with a 6.4 WAR.  In 2007, Wright hit .325/.416/.546 with 42 doubles, a triple, 30 homers, 107 RBI, and 34 stolen bases with an 8.3 WAR.  That year, Wright finished fourth in the MVP voting.

It should be noted Mattingly never had a WAR as high as Wright had in 2007.  Mattingly’s single season high in WAR was 7.2.  Wright had two seasons of at least 7.0 WAR.

A final consideration is Wright did not have the benefits Mattingly had in his career.  Mattingly had the short porch in left field at Yankee Stadium and ownership that was fully invested in winning.  Wright had to deal with the cavernous and ill-conceived Citi Field during the prime of his career and ownership struggling under the Madoff scandal.

Overall, Wright was just a better player than Mattingly.  That doesn’t diminish the terrific career Mattingly had.  Unfortuantely, it doesn’t propel Wright into the Hall of Fame.  Ultimately, that is the shame because both of these players should be in Cooperstown, but they aren’t through no fault of their own.