Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Well, that escalated quickly, and at the same time, it’s not surprising at all.
Over the weekend, the New York Mets extended a one-year, $18.4 million qualifying offer to both Michael Conforto and Noah Syndergaard. While it looks like Thor is excited about taking that deal, Scooter — his roommate during the 2016 season — will be declining it, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
New York Mets outfielder Michael Conforto will decline the qualifying offer and head to free agency, sources familiar with the situation tell ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 8, 2021
If you’re an avid MMO reader, this should come as no shock since our own Michael Mayer mentioned just over a month ago that this was a likely scenario.
Sources say the early indication is the Mets will give Michael Conforto the qualifying offer and he will reject it.
— Mike Mayer (@mikemayer22) October 7, 2021
Conforto struggled in his walk year with the Mets, slashing .232/.344/.384 with 14 home runs, 55 RBI, and 52 runs scored in 479 plate appearances. This led to a career-low 0.8 fWAR and a 106 wRC+, which was his lowest in a single season since 2016 (97).
The year he just had certainly must be taken into consideration by teams interested in his services. However, Conforto has not only looked more like himself over the last couple of months of the season, but he’s also built up a proven track record of production. This includes a career 124 wRC+ with three different seasons of 20-plus homers and four separate performances of at least 2.0 fWAR.
Mayer followed up this news by mentioning that the San Francisco Giants and Seattle Mariners could be two teams to show interest in the 28-year-old outfielder. In their free agency predictions, both MLB Trade Rumors and FanGraphs pegged Conforto with landing a one-year deal, so it’ll be interesting to see how his market develops in the coming weeks.
