Spring Training is usually reserved for getting one’s swing and conditioning in order before the marathon that is Major League Baseball’s schedule commences. With just nine days until Opening Day in Washington, DC, New York Mets outfielder Michael Conforto, fresh off his third home run in as many Grapefruit League games, is presumably counting the hours until the regular season begins.

While his .265/.321/.531 slash line through 49 at-bats doesn’t exactly jump off the page, Conforto appears to be right where he needs to be with the season bearing down.

His four home runs, ten runs batted in, and .851 OPS — good for tenth in the National League this spring — are hopeful precursors to what type of damage we can expect Conforto to levy in between Robinson Cano and Wilson Ramos in the Mets’ lineup this season.

Manager Mickey Callaway has alluded to the middle of the Metsies’ order consisting of these three sluggers on many occasions this spring. But now, as Cano (.475/.512/.700) and Ramos (.321/.367/.429) rake their way through Florida, the notion is nearly a reality and this writer couldn’t be more excited about its prospects.

Conforto, 26, is coming off a year that started slow but eventually saw him shake the rust off of the season-ending shoulder surgery that cut his 2017 campaign short, hitting .243/.350/.448 with a career-high 28 home runs, 82 runs batted in, a .342 weighted on-base average, 120 weighted runs created plus rating, and 3.0 wins above replacement (FanGraphs).

By the final month of the 2018 season, the Oregon State alumnus had rediscovered the form that vaulted his name toward the cream of baseball’s young crop of position players. Over 126 plate appearances in September and October, Conforto slashed .286/.365/.616 with 11 homers, 30 RBI, a 19 percent strikeout rate, .330 isolated power metric, .409 wOBA, 165 wRC+, and a .315 BABIP.

If this is the type of production we can expect out of Michael Conforto as he enters the prime of his skyrocketing career, I’d say general manager Brodie Van Wagenen had better lock this young man up fast.

With a fellow, high-ceiling, organizational cornerstone in Brandon Nimmo developing right alongside him, a rehauled lineup featuring the aforementioned Cano and Ramos, as well as newcomer Pete Alonso, a healthy Juan Lagares, and two more promising young bucks in Jeff McNeil and Amed Rosario populating the Mets’ lineup (not to forget Jed Lowrie, who, hopefully, will be back in action soon), Conforto’s ever-strengthening bat should become an anchor of sorts.

As long as he can stay healthy and continue to produce, Michael Conforto could develop into a perennial five-win player. With this type of talent (and protection) around him in the batting order, he could also very well be the key ingredient to the Mets’ 2019 success.