What a day for Mets rookie Michael Conforto. Only a few hours after being honored at Citi Field on Monday with a Sterling Award for being named the organization’s Minor League Player of the Year, the 22-year-old left fielder blasted his eighth home run of the season in the Mets 4-0 win over the Atlanta Braves.
The homer came in the second inning, an opposite field line drive that left the park in a hurry. Conforto has done an excellent job of going the other way with power and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by manager Terry Collins.
“This guy has got some kind of power. Of all the things I’ve heard, it’s the one thing that has really surprised me.”
“Not just the opposite-field power but the power itself. This guy is going to be a good hitter, but he’s going to be a home-run hitter, too. This guy has enough juice to put up some big numbers.” (Fred Kerber, N.Y. Post)
Conforto didn’t shy away from describing himself as a future home run hitter. “I’ve always considered myself a power hitter, definitely,” Conforto told reporters.
“That was the cherry on top,” Conforto said of the home run. “It was an awesome day and couldn’t have gone any better. It was really cool to get the award and get the win today and get back on the right side of things. We’ll just keep it going.”
September 21
The New York Mets announced that Michael Conforto is their minor league Player of the Year and Sterling Award winner.
The team’s first-round pick (10th overall) in 2014, Conforto batted .297 with a .372 OBP, 12 HR and 54 RBI in 91 games this season between Double-A and Triple-A.
He was promoted on July 24 to the Mets, where he’s hit .286 with a .912 OPS, 11 doubles, seven home runs, 26 runs scored, and 22 RBI in 45 games all while playing spectacular defense.
In an interview with John Harper of the Daily News Mets VP of player development and scouting Paul DePodesta talked about the day he drafted rookie outfielder Conforto.
“I’ve done this for 20 years now,” DePodesta said. “And I can remember maybe two instances where a player we desperately wanted wound up being there for us.”
“Michael was our top target in the spring and all the way through to the draft. We thought there was only an outside chance he might get to us at 10. We were crossing our fingers with every pick ahead of us.’’
Even so, DePodesta admits he didn’t expect Conforto to be having such success in the big leagues already, in his first full season as a professional.
“It’s pretty remarkable,” he said. “It would have been impossible to predict this.”
It’s an amazing season for a remarkable kid who at 22 has such an incredibly bright future ahead of him.
Congratulations, Michael!
