PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — He begins every morning the same way, like a pilot conducting a pre-flight check. The assumption is that something within the system will malfunction. It’s not a question of if, but what. So he tests his neck, then his shoulder, then his back, and then waits to learn which one will cry out for attention. All three have been surgically repaired within the last 26 months, in which he’s played precisely zero games for the Mets, the team he captains.



“You see which one of those is going to be the problem that day,” David Wright said this week, between sips of a smoothie.



A good day means dull pain, the kind that can be worked around with the help of a consistent workout routine. A bad day means sharp pain, the kind that can be negotiated with, though only with a lot of time and effort. Then there are the most agonizing days, when his battered body refuses to cooperate. On one of these mornings, Wright awakened only to...