It's unlikely that David Wright can actually hit .400 over a season, but it's a lot of fun to imagine that he can.  He's not just still the darling of Mets fans, but he's finally become a special player in the eyes of Mets owner Fred Wilpon, who previously dismissed Wright as good but hardly special.

The Mets are making plenty of sounds about signing Wright to an extension, but despite all of the noise, you have to question the reality behind such claims.  Not just in terms of what the Mets have and are willing to offer, but if David Wright would or should consider any offer put on the table.

Even after settling their debts and taking on new partners, the Mets franchise isn't exactly healthy and flush with money.  Despite the fact the team is outperforming expectations and more fans are showing up at Citi Field, the team is bleeding money -- so much so that the team didn't even tender an offer to Jose Reyes despite his winning the NL batting title last year.

David Wright has fun playing baseball again.

Photo by Keith Allison, used under creative commons license.

I'm not sure how that is supposed to appeal to Wright.  Unless he feels a sense of loyalty to the organization because they brought him up, they have little to offer him besides money.  The fans might be a different story, but probably not enough of one to be a factor in any decision that Wright makes as he goes forward.

To Mets fans David Wright is what Derek Jeter has been to the Yankees fan.  He's been the face of an organization, a bright spot even when things looked bleak.  And while the Mets have plenty of young and interesting up and coming players who might one day fill that role (Lucas Duda, Ike Davis, Dillon Gee), Mets fans have been disappointed time and time again when promising players turned out to be flops, either as players or human beings.

Wright, at least for the moment, has changed that and the fans love him for it.  But like most fans, they've been fickle enough to alienate him at times, especially when he was struggling in terms of power and average due to the poorly conceived original dimensions of Citi Field.  Yet though all of that, he was the player looked at as the good example, as the guy who played through pain and not perceived as the crybaby that Reyes was often made out to be.

Essentially he was the fans' choice.  And we all know what happens to fan favorites who are superstars in their own right when an organization can't pay them top dollar.  Like Albert Pujols or CC Sabathia or Carl Crawford, they go to an organization that will pay them money and is close to contending. And if Wright really loves New York he might not even need to leave the city to find a willing suitor.

Yes, following the 2013 season the 31-year-old Wright will be the premier free agent at a scarce position, and very few big market teams won't be shopping for that commodity, including the Yankees who'll have a 38-year-old Alex Rodriguez still kicking around under contract.

Unless things go totally insane in the free agent market he won't command Pujols type money, but he'll be offered a contract at better than $20 million a year for somewhere in the 5-7 year range.

Maybe more if he hits .400.

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