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At 31 years old, Michael Conforto is showing signs of returning to the All-Star form he flashed years ago for the New York Mets.
Michael Conforto is off to a sizzling start to the season for the San Francisco Giants, showing signs of a career resurgence after a few down years hampered by injuries.
Conforto is 15-for-46 to begin 2024, good for a pristine .326 batting average, .380 on-base percentage, and .609 slugging percentage with three home runs and 11 RBI. Those numbers are reminiscent of the All-Star campaign Conforto put together for the New York Mets in 2017, when he slashed .279/.384/.555 with 27 homers, 72 runs, and 68 RBI in 109 games as a 24 year old.
Manager Bob Melvin has recently inserted Conforto into the third and fourth spots of the Giants lineup after he began this season hitting seventh. The sweet-swinging lefty certainly profiles as a middle of the order type hitter if healthy, as he hit at least 27 home runs in three straight seasons from 2017-19 including a career-high 33 dingers in 2019 while maintaining a strong on-base clip.
Shoulder Injuries Have Plagued Michael Conforto
A former first-round pick, Conforto appeared headed for stardom with the Mets until he ran into shoulder issues. His All-Star 2017 season was cut short due to a season-ending dislocated left shoulder he sustained on a swing in a game on Aug. 24.
Conforto recovered from shoulder surgery to play full seasons for the Mets in 2018 and 2019 before he hit a career-high .322 with a sublime .412 OBP and 9 home runs in the 2020 pandemic-shortened season. His 2021 season was a step backwards, batting .232/.344/.384 with 14 home runs and 55 RBIs in 406 at bats and 125 games for the Mets.
Another shoulder injury resulted in Conforto undergoing surgery on his right shoulder in April 2022. He missed the entire 2022 season as an unsigned free agent. He is now in the second-year of two-year, $36 million deal signed with the Giants in 2023. Conforto currently looks much more like his old self compared to last year, when he hit just .239/.334/.384 for San Francisco.
Mets Tried Signing Conforto to Huge 9-Figure Extension
If Conforto could keep swinging for the Giants like he has to start this season, he could drive a strong free agent market next offseason and recoup some of the money he once declined from the Mets.
Prior to the 2021 season, the Mets offered Conforto a contract extension worth between $100-$120 million, according to SNY’s Andy Martino. Conforto and his agent Scott Boras declined the offer, which was a costly mistake ahead of Conforto down 2021 season and missed 2022 season. The outfielder’s contract offer was recently discussed by 2021 Mets general manager Zack Scott on his March 28 episode of his Deconstructing Champions podcast.
“Conforto was someone we did pursue in spring training of that year. So I’m in the GM seat at that point, talking to his agent Scott Boras. We made an actual offer, it was a pretty sizable deal. Definitely in hindsight something he probably should have taken. I understood at the time why he didn’t,” said Scott, who was the Mets GM from January 2021 through September 2021.
“I do think this is one of those cases where Scott [Boras] shooting for the moon usually works and obviously it didn’t in this case,” Scott added. “They rolled the dice, kinda bet on yourself and then obviously things went really south for [Conforto] that season both at the plate and health wise.
Conforto did miss one game on April 8 for the Giants due to side soreness, but he has played both Giants games since as their left-fielder. He most recently went 2-for-4 with an RBI while batting third in the Giants’ 7-1 win over the Washington Nationals on April 10.
Andrew Cohen covers Major League Baseball for Heavy.com. A New York-based journalist, he has covered sports and sports business since 2014, with bylines at Front Office Sports, Sports Business Journal, SportTechie, SB Nation and AM New York. More about Andrew Cohen
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