What the heck is going on with David Wright? Going into Thursday’s games, he has 55 strikeouts, which leads the Major Leagues and has him on pace to finish in the top 10 in baseball history for the most strikeouts in a season, which, by the way, is almost 80 more strikeouts than he’s had in a season in his career. Is there something wrong with Wright, or is he just going through the worst slump ever?

Wright was once the player to build around for the Mets, and with good reason. With power and speed, Wright was a staple third baseman; clearly a leader on the field. In 2007, he had career-best numbers with 196 hits, 30 home runs, 34 stolen bases and an OPS of .963. 2008 raised the stakes a little with 33 home runs and 124 RBI. He won a gold glove and silver slugger award both seasons. In 2009, everything changed.

Wright’s power numbers didn’t just drop, they vanished. He only managed 10 home runs in a career-high 735 plate appearances and only drove in 72. He struck out 140 times, a career-high by 22 over the previous season. What’s most staggering about his drop in power is that his batting average actually went up from the previous season. Sure it was only by .005 points, but it’s entirely not what you’d expect to see when every other offensive category fell so far.

This season the struggles continue for Wright. Not only are his Mets in dead last in the NL East, Wright is on pace to break the single season strikeout record. That and his batting average is finally starting to reflect his slump. No one knows why Wright is going through these struggles, but he needs to figure things out soon, or else the Mets will continue to tank and may get to the point where they’ll have to blow everything up and start over, and in a city like New York, that could be disastrous.