In his short time up in the majors last year, young Michael Conforto left a remarkable impression on Mets management, his teammates and fans as he often flashed his significant star power potential.
Between his sweet line drive swing, some of his eye-opening home runs – especially in the postseason – and some of his stellar plays in the field, one can only imagine what a full season can bring from the young corner outfielder.
Conforto told he told Mike Puma of the New York Post that while he was happy with what he produced during his rookie season, it was just a small sampling of what he can do and that he still has areas he needs to improve to become the player many believe he can be.
“I just want to become a more complete player,” Conforto said Wednesday, in Port St. Lucie. “There’s some things I need to lock down a little bit on defense and some things I need to learn on the bases and obviously there’s some things I need to learn at the plate, so I want to be a more complete player, a smarter player and hanging around these guys is going to help me do that.”
In 56 regular season games for the Mets last season, Conforto put up some impressive numbers, batting a respectable .270/.335/.506 while crushing nine home runs and knocking in 26 runs. He also produced 30 runs and 14 doubles while walking 17 times.
It is worth noting that this was mainly against right-handed pitching as he only had 14 plate appearances against left-handed pitching. In preparation for his potential role as an everyday player, Conforto devoted time this offseason to improving against left-handed pitching.
“I want to be able to cover more of the plate and be more comfortable on some pitches in situations that I struggled with in the past,” he said. “It was a real productive offseason, but at the same time I’m happy to be back.”
Additionally. Conforto said he trained this offseason in playing both corner outfield positions in preparation for seeing some opportunities in right field this season.
“I’m going to get a chance to work on that this spring training, and that was one of the things I worked on when I was back home,” Conforto said. “Just making sure I got reps from both sides in the outfield and being comfortable.”
With the return of Yoenis Cespedes, who will play primarily center field but will also see time in left, giving Terry Collins the flexibility to shift Conforto to right field will be a key dynamic this season.
The Mets have high hopes for the 23-year old outfielder, and many believe Conforto can become an All Star level producer and one of the more feared hitters in the Mets lineup in 2016.
