New York Mets outfielder Michael Conforto took nearly a month off after the World Series last year and traveled to Mexico to unwind before he resumed his offseason workout regimen in December.
However, he tells Marc Carig of Newsday that the disappointment of the World Series loss has not gone away so he’s using it as motivation for his offseason workouts.
“It definitely still stings, especially with the way that series was,” Conforto said on Monday. “We had opportunities to shut the door on them and didn’t quite get the job done as a team. I think it definitely still stings.”
“I know everybody on this team feels the pain when they’re getting ready for this season. We’ll just use it to motivate us moving on.”
Despite playing a grand total of 133 minor league games, none of which came in Triple-A, Conforto saw immediate success and ended his rookie season with a .270/.335/.506 batting line in 56 games and a 2.1 fWAR.
During that span, Conforto hit 14 doubles and nine home runs in just 194 plate appearances. To give you some context on how good that was, over a full 600 plate appearances, that extrapolates out to about 42 doubles and 28 home runs.
“I know the scouting report’s out now,” said Conforto. “They’ll be a little more prepared to pitch to me. But I want to come in and be prepared for whatever comes my way this year.”
Conforto is expected to play some right field this season to give the team some flexibility. He told Carig it shouldn’t be an issue and that he welcomes the challenge. Expectations will be high for the former first-rounder in 2016, but so far he’s done nothing but exceed them since making his major league debut.
