David Wright took batting practice on Wednesday and could return from neck spasms on Thursday.
Regardless of when he comes back, he’s not interested in being shut down for the rest of the season.
“My goal is to get healthy as can be as quickly as can be and try to finish strong,” Wright said before the Mets’ 3-2 loss to the Braves at Citi Field. “And hopefully that will allow me to springboard into next year.”
It’s easy to understand why the third baseman would want to turn his focus to 2015 after what has been a disappointing season for him and the organization.
“You come here and this game is hard enough,” Wright said. “Then you get little things that bother you and that compounds things.”
Wright said his neck felt better, and if he doesn’t have a setback, manager Terry Collins said he could be back in the lineup for Thursday’s series finale against Atlanta.
“He did some stuff and we need to see how he comes out of it,” Collins said.
Daniel Murphy also was out again with a strained calf. The second baseman felt slightly better, but mostly just rested the calf.
“With Dan’s situation, we’ve got to be very careful,” Collins said. “If that thing gets worse, he’ll be out a lot more than one or two days.”
Vic Black was diagnosed with slight herniated disc in his neck and likely will be unavailable for the next few days.
Black had a similar issue early in the season when he was with Triple-A Las Vegas and said it took about a week to get better. This time, it flared up while he was stretching in Oakland. He admitted it might be something the team takes a closer look at in the offseason.
“Even twice [in one season] is something I don’t want to deal with,” said Black, who underwent an MRI exam on Wednesday. “We’ll reevaluate in the offseason when there’s downtime.”
Jeurys Familia has been so good that the Mets may have to make a decision about who their closer should be in the future.
“I think we will have to do that,” Collins said. “That’s not a bad problem to have. We’re going to have to talk about that role and I think this kid will be right in that mix. And heavily in that mix.”
Since moving into the role in May, Jenrry Mejia has earned 19 saves, but he has not always endeared himself to the organization. Most recently, he said he was dealing with a hernia after blowing a save. The Mets also have another established closer in Bobby Parnell, but he’s coming off neck surgery.
That means there are questions surrounding each potential candidate, but Familia has continued to impress.