The 2018 season has certainly been a struggle for the New York Mets talented outfielder Michael Conforto as he looks to return to his pre-surgery 2017 form.
Conforto recently worked hitting coach Pat Roessler and assistant hitting coach Tom Slater to help correct an issue in with his swing according to Mike Puma of the New York Post.
The lefty realized he wasn’t waiting on the ball and as result was showing virtually no power up the middle and the other way. “We just sat down and said ‘What’s causing you to chase pitches? What’s causing you to not go the other way with power like you usually do?”
Early results were good for Conforto as he went 1-for-3 with a 445 foot home run (second longest of career) to center field on Thursday night in the Mets 6-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. He also walked which lifted his OPS back up over .700 at .708, he had a .994 OPS at the same point in 2017.
Conforto has always been a guy that is going better when hitting the ball up middle and the other way, 24 of his 59 major league homers have come to the left side of the field.
There have been recent whispers of sending down Conforto to Triple-A to figure things out when Yoenis Cespedes finally returns from the disabled list. Conforto has been adamant that he believes he can work out the issues at the major league where the Mets need him.
Conforto returning close to his 2017 form would be huge for a Mets team that is scoring runs at a historically bad pace recently, but would also give them more optimism in the long-term for someone that’s had a roller coaster major league career to this point.
