PORT ST. LUCIE — David Wright was part of some of the best lineups the Mets have ever had — including the 2006 team that reached the NLCS and scored the second-most runs in franchise history.
And still, when he looked at this year’s team, with the addition of Juan Soto, Wright said it was “amazing. I wish I could be a part of this lineup.”
As he went through this year’s roster, Wright noticed some of the same dynamics to the 2006 team, that included Carlos Beltrán, José Reyes, Carlos Delgado and Wright, among others.
This one features not just Soto, but Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso.
“I would be happy just to make this lineup,” Wright said with a laugh. “It’s formidable.”
“You have a guy, in my opinion, who probably should have won the MVP last year [Lindor], a guy who can contend for the MVP every year [Soto] and home run threats,” Wright said. “It’s a deep lineup.”
Asked if it was as good as 2006, Wright said, “I don’t know. We were pretty good in ’06. There are a lot of similarities: a big power first baseman, an electric shortstop and kind of a Juan Soto-ish type [of] player in Carlos Beltrán.”
A key part of this year’s lineup will be the continued development of Mark Vientos, who first made an impression on Wright when Vientos was part of a group of minor leaguers Wright was asked to talk to on a back field during spring training.
“Vientos was one who stuck out to me,” Wright said of the third baseman. “I didn’t really know who these guys were. … I remember being on a back field at 7 in the morning and there’s nothing I can tell these guys that’s gonna make a light bulb [go off] and he stuck around and asked me follow-up questions. I appreciated that.”
Most of Wright’s chats with the younger players continue to involve more of the preparation part of the game than what takes place on the field.
That figures to be the case again with Wright in camp for a few days, even though he’s in uniform for what he believes was the first time since his 2018 retirement.
And he’s looking forward to seeing Vientos become an even better player.
Wright called success in baseball “addicting. Once you taste a little bit of success, you need it, you want more of it. That’s the position Mark is in.”
Wright said he would invent challenges for himself to improve.
“I see a lot of that in Mark,” Wright said. “It’s a good start, but he wants more and he wants to be the type of player he knows he can be. Now it’s just up to him.”
Wright also remains the last Met to serve as team captain and he again declined to endorse a successor, instead praising the leadership skills of Lindor, Nimmo, Alonso and Soto.
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