Michael Conforto stood in the Mets clubhouse Saturday afternoon prior to the team’s match with the Washington Nationals and spoke with reporters about his prognosis.
Arm in sling, Conforto said that he can’t guarantee he will be ready for Opening Day, but he is going to do everything he can.
“The general outline is six months, that’s what both doctors said,” Conforto said. “When I see the doctor in a couple weeks, we’ll see where I’m at [and] where my range of motion is.”
Conforto dislocated his shoulder and tore his posterior capsule during a swing in August and underwent surgery earlier this month in Los Angeles.
The 24-year-old was one of the lone bright spots in another wise nightmarish season for the Mets this year. Their lone all-star, Conforto was good for 3.4 WAR and hit .279/.384/.555 with 27 homers and 68 RBI in 109 games.
The six months Conforto referred to typical means before he can resume baseball activity, much less playing everyday. The outfielder said that he doesn’t want to put a timeline on it yet because it could turn out to be more or less time than projected.
“There was probably some damage in their from football in high school or just from swinging in general,” Conforto said. “The swing itself was just a freak thing. That was frustrating because I felt like I had a lot more to give this year.”
With the outfielder’s Opening Day status very much up in the air, this could open the door for the Mets to bring back Norichika Aoki through arbitration.
Aoki, 35, has one final year of control before hitting the open market at the conclusion of next season. He earned $5.5 million this year and will likely get a bump in salary should the Mets choose to go the route of arbitration.
He is hitting .315 (23-for-73) with seven doubles, eight RBI, 11 runs scored and a .375 OBP in 18 games since being signed by the Mets on Sept. 2. Aoki has reached base safely in 21 of his last 22 games dating to Aug. 20 and in 17 of his 18 games as a Met.
