David Wright details how Mets leaders should handle recent losing stretch

New York Mets icon David Wright assessed how he'd handle the team's recent losing woes in the clubhouse.

Jul 19, 2025; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets former third baseman David Wright speaks to fans during his number retirement ceremony before a game against the Cincinnati Reds at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Before the New York Mets' 12-5 win over the Atlanta Braves on August 12, they had lost seven consecutive contests and 11 of their past 12 games. This brutal losing stretch convinced many New York fans that, despite this team being the best in all of baseball for the first two months of the season, they were bound to bow out of the playoff race by September.

The jury is still out on what the Mets' fate is. But given how talented this team is, there's no reason for fans to write them off prematurely.

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One person who knows a thing or two about keeping the faith is Mets icon David Wright, who led the team through thick and thin from 2004-2018. This includes their trip to the World Series in 2015 and their going 70-92 in 2009.

Jul 19, 2025; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets former third baseman David Wright speaks during a press conference before having his number retired by the Mets before a game against the Cincinnati Reds at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

David Wright Gets Honest About Mets' Recent Woes

Wright was named the Mets' team captain before the 2013 season and held the role throughout the rest of his career. Therefore, he's uniquely qualified to assess what a clubhouse leader can do to keep morale up during a losing streak. And that's exactly what he did during his appearance on an August 13 episode of SNY's The Mets Pod.

"[In 2007], we went into a little rut, it happened to be at the end of September... and we couldn't do anything right. And I remember... we felt like the best way to get out of this was to continuously have these team meetings, when we wouldn't have them during the normal part of [the season]," Wright said when asked how he, as a captain, would have handled this current Mets losing stretch.

"So when we had these team meetings, we just felt like it became more pressure, because we were talking about like, 'Let's play loose.' Well, when you're talking about playing loose, it has the opposite effect sometimes," he added.

"In the clubhouse... it's an individual thing. When guys are eating lunch, maybe you pull up a chair to a table of guys eating lunch, and you just start talking about thought process, or routine, or the little things that you can do better," Wright said.

"I was just more of a go to each guy individually and just kind of hear their thought process, or what's bothering them, or what we could do better. Or just kind of have an open forum as to what they thought was the best way they thought we could pop out of one of these little stretches," he concluded.

In other words, Wright suggests that the Mets ditch team meetings and the leaders take a more personal, individualized approach with their teammates in getting back to New York's past winning ways.