The Mets may have themselves a very special gem in Michael Conforto.
He started his season with Single-A St. Lucie in the notorious prison for hitters known as the Florida State League. Yet, he escaped having notched 12 doubles, seven home runs and 28 RBI in 46 games for the St. Lucie Mets, twice earning Florida State League Player of the Week honors over the first six weeks of the season.
His performance warranted an early promotion to the Binghamton Mets. It’s a jump industry experts believe is the hardest to make in the professional ranks. On top of that, he is nearly three years younger than the average player in the Eastern League, which has served as another test for Conforto.
Yet, he has shown no signs of slowing down.
The 22-year-old former first-round pick for the Mets is already 12-for-28 over his first eight games in the Eastern League. He has four doubles, a triple, a home run and eight RBI with seven walks. One of those doubles delivered a walk-off 8-7 win for the B-Mets on Saturday.
He’s hitting .429/.543/.750, totaling a whopping 1.293 OPS against the stiffer competition of Double-A, and is currently riding a seven-game hitting streak with four multiple-hit games over that span. There’s no question Conforto is killing it so far in Double-A, as he did at St. Lucie earlier this year and Brooklyn last year upon being drafted as the tenth overall pick in the draft.
Aside from his performance at the plate, Conforto has impressed the team with his quickly evolving defense in the outfield. It was originally considered a weakness for him, as he only started playing the outfield recently while in college. But to this point, he’s been very good defensively and the organization is not seeing anything of particular concern since they’ve drafted him.
As for what’s next with Conforto, it’s clear he is fast tracking towards the big leagues, potentially faster than originally anticipated. But for now, the plan seems to be for him to remain in Binghamton for the rest of 2015. He’s only played 96 games in his professional career, and this is a front office which harps on their players gaining as much experience as they can before arriving to Flushing.
Of course, plans can change and performance always talks.
If Conforto continues to tear up the Eastern League, there’s a chance he could finish his season with Wally Backman in Las Vegas, especially if Las Vegas gets to the postseason and Binghamton does not. The more at-bats for Conforto, especially at a higher level, the merrier.
He will unquestionably be the talk of spring training in 2016 as he will likely earn an invite to big league camp and spend a lot of time in the main clubhouse and in Grapefruit League games.
But even if he’s primed and ready for the big leagues, it’s logical to conclude a promotion will not come until at least late April, at the earliest. There’s the business side of things which the Mets need to consider when it comes to Conforto and his agent, Scott Boras, and ensuring they can maximize Conforto’s years of his control. Its unlikely to be a factor today while he’s in the Eastern League, but count on it being a factor in the decision making process for Conforto in 2016.
That’s just the business of baseball. It’s worth mentioning the Cubs recently went through it with another one of Boras’ special clients in Kris Bryant.
Obviously, if Conforto is big league ready sooner than anticipated, they need to find room for him here when the time comes, especially if winning is the priority for the organization. And that time could be coming very soon.
Just Mets 