WRIGHT ON! Nationals manager Davey Johnson (inset) said he believes the Mets should have already given third baseman David Wright (above) a new contract. (
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PORT ST. LUCIE — Davey Johnson isn’t in the business of rooting for the Mets these days, but the team’s former manager seems to be scratching his head over the franchise’s direction.
Asked yesterday to assess the Mets, the Nationals manager wondered why David Wright still doesn’t have a new contract.
“What’s David Wright’s future?” Johnson asked rhetorically before the Nationals’ 3-2 win over the Mets. “Did they extend him or what are they doing?”
Wright is signed through 2012 with a club option for next season, but Johnson was unimpressed.
“The same thing we had with [Ryan] Zimmerman,” Johnson said, referring to the Nationals third baseman who recently signed a six-year extension worth $100 million.
Should the Mets extend the 29-year-old Wright?
“What do you think?” said Johnson, who managed Wright on Team USA in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. “I like him. He got a big hit for me in the WBC.”
It isn’t the first time Johnson, who managed the Mets to the 1986 world championship, has wondered aloud about the franchise’s navigation. Last year he told The Post it didn’t make sense for the Mets to slash their payroll to the $100 million level that was projected for 2012. The Mets’ actual payroll will be about $90 million.
“That’s fine, $100 million if you’ve got all the pieces together and you only have one or two question marks, then you’re a competitive club,” Johnson told The Post in September. “But in the scheme of things, $100 million is not a huge payroll. What’s the Phillies’ payroll? One hundred and [seventy] million? And you’re in a bigger market. You do the math and analyze the process, and are they ready?”
Wright’s contract situation will be a lightning rod for the entire season, if he isn’t traded. Wright said he is done discussing the topic, but Zimmerman is rooting for the Mets to keep their popular third baseman long-term.
Wright is starting the final season of a six-year deal worth $55 million, but the Mets can exercise an option worth $16 million for 2013. If Wright is traded during the season, he can decline the option and become a free agent this winter.
Zimmerman and Wright are longtime friends, dating to AAU baseball in Virginia. Zimmerman said there is little question that Wright would like to finish his career with the Mets.
“He enjoys being here,” Zimmerman said. “They gave him an opportunity, and anytime you’re a loyal person like he is, anyone who gives you an opportunity to come up and treats you well, obviously you would like to be here.
“He’s a guy that works his butt off and plays the game the right way. Anytime you find players like that, I don’t want to say it’s rare, but he’s a special kind of player . He’s a good player and an even better person.”
Zimmerman said the Mets would be smart to extend Wright.
“David has worked his butt off and done a lot of things for the Mets and hopefully it will work out,” Zimmerman said.
Johnson threw a zinger when asked what he thought of the Mets. After a long pause, he responded: “I like the uniforms.”
Then after another long pause, he added: “They’ll be all right. If [Johan] Santana comes around, they’ll be all right.”
A Mets official was amused when told of Johnson’s uniforms comment.
“Tell him to go [bleep] himself,” the official said, laughing.