Save David Wright

The Mets' star third baseman, David Wright, is on the verge of becoming the first player of my generation to have his career derailed by a new ballpark. In his first four full seasons in the major leagues, he batted .309, had an OPS of .922 and averaged 26 home runs and 122 RBI per season. This year, in the new Collaterized Debt Obligation Field, with its cavernous dimensions and high walls, he is still hitting .323, but with only six home runs and 48 RBI.

This is certainly a strange phenomenon for the 17-year-old era of new ballparks, begun with Camden Yards in Baltimore. Most of them were purposefully built small, to further goad the partly steroids-induced explosion of home runs around the turn on the century. The Mets, aiming to tastefully replicate Ebbets Field, took a different approach (though, Shea, was a pitchers' park as well). Wright has admitted to changing his game because of the new field, and the split between his road and home stats are noticeably different.

He's also the best-established player to have to deal with a new park mid-career that specifically hurts his strengths. Among other stars in pitcher-friendly parks, Ichiro Suzuki, in Seattle's Safeco Field, is a slap hitter who focuses on getting on base and scoring runs, not power; Adrian Gonzalez, in San Diego's Petco Park, slightly bucks the trend, but is better on the road; and the power hitters from the Oakland A's stadium, an old-school pitchers' park, kept up great power numbers because they were on steroids.

Wright, on the other hand, in his first four years, was establishing a career that could've been Hall of Fame-worthy. To see that squashed (assuming this year isn't a blip, but the start of a new career phase because of the park) is unfair and should end. Among all the problems the Mets face -- ridiculous amounts of injuries, executives challenging players to fights, cruelly embarrasing reporters mid-press conference -- this one seems the easiest to fix. The team can move in the fences moderately during the offseason. Even better, that will create a few hundred more seats they can charge $80 each for -- and then watch go unfilled.