Michael Conforto has had a pretty horrific season so far and according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, that might soon lead to his demotion to Triple-A Las Vegas.
Sherman says that sources have told him that the Mets are considering optioning Michael Conforto upon the return of Yoenis Cespedes. However, the latter’s return has been delayed now, as he was removed from his rehab game against the Binghamton Mets with tightness in his right quad.
His sources tell him, to varying degrees though, that this was a discussion point for the Mets front office over the last week.
“One team source had described flipping Cespedes for Conforto as the most likely scenario, another called it a consideration and a third said sending Conforto to the minors has been a steady internal discussion and that doing it when Cespedes returns had been among the options.”
The outfielder is currently hitting .219/.340/.365 with seven home runs and 16 RBI to give him a 97 wRC+ and a 0.2 WAR on the season.
He’s been especially bad over the last week, though, as he only has two hits in his last 25 at-bats to go along with nine strikeouts.
However, Conforto doesn’t believe that a demotion is a good solution to fix his woes at the plate.
“Triple-A is not an answer. I’ve been through that. I have done all I can do down there. I play at this level, that’s it.”
The Mets have tried this before with the 25-year old, as the team sent him down twice in 2016 after dealing with similar struggles. While he didn’t re-find his stroke that season, he did manage to make the All-Star team in 2017 and establish himself as one of better hitters in the lineup.
That being said, the Mets are concerned that they may have rushed Conforto back from shoulder surgery, as he returned to the club on April 5, which was almost a whole month ahead of schedule.
Conforto said that he feels completely healthy, but admits that there are not many comparisons of reference of players who have come back successfully from this injury.
It’s also worth noting that the Mets pinch-hit for him in the ninth inning last night against Aroldis Chapman, sending Devin Mesoraco up to the plate instead after Conforto was already 0-for-3 on the night.
The tenth overall pick in the 2014 MLB Draft believes that he will figure this out and everything will start to click soon.
“I feel good things are coming. There is plenty of time left [in the season].”
