MLB superagent Scott Boras held court at the GM meetings on Wednesday discussing his corral of clients entering free agency this offseason. Michael Conforto is the lone Mets free agent represented by him.
“Conforto has been kind of the king of diamonds, little league world series, college world series. As a Met, he’s been an all-star and pennant winner,” Boras said. “He’s basically become the king of queens.”
Conforto has ruled right field for the Mets since his call-up in 2015. He was an all-star in 2017, finishing the season with a slash line of .279/.384/.555 in 109 games. Conforto only exceeded those numbers during the abbreviated 2020 season. For his career, he has a .255 average with a .824 OPS.
Conforto will be 29 when the 2022 season starts.
“In free agency now he’s kind of like the ace of many GM’s hearts,” Boras said. “Certainly we’ve seen from the interest level that everybody is understanding of the covid issue and what dealt with the first few months of the season. I think everybody understands who Michael is and what he means at the leadership level to teams. Frankly, the interest level has been extraordinary.”
The Mets want Conforto back, displayed by offering the one-year $18.4 million qualifying offer. but it was immediately declined by Conforto’s camp. The Mets were hoping to cash in on what was a down year for their 2014 first-round pick.
At this time it’s unknown if the Mets willing to reach Conforto’s contract demands. Boras called his client at “National League East beast” and based on team interest he’s likely getting a contract similar to what he would’ve had after the 2020 season.
Boras was noncommittal if Conforto wanted to even be back in Queens for the future.
“I think that he’s a free agent and when players become free agents they know where they’ve been, they’re getting an opportunity to see where they can go and they have to make that decision,” Boras said.
Boras also took a jab at the Mets front office situation.
“There’s 29 teams that have their big carts out there and are filling them up. It may be the old adage, what’s upsetting the Big Apple cart? It might be that it’s rather unattended at the moment,” Boras said.
Boras represents a slew of top players in this year’s free agency class. His clients include Corey Seager, Max Scherzer, Marcus Semien, Kris Bryant, Nick Castellanos, and Carlos Rodon.
