At 22 years old and playing his first full season in the minors, Michael Conforto is already the best outfield prospect I’ve seen in the past fifteen years. He hits for power, he hits for contact and he’s not seasons and seasons of sustained play away from helping the major league franchise. What has he done so far?
In 46 games at Advanced A he hit .283/.350/.811 and he only struck out 26 times in 184 at bats. That is pretty amazing from a player reaching that division of play for the first time. That, combined with his 12 doubles and 7 homeruns earned him a promotion to AA.
In his first 14 games at AA he’s been even better. He’s crushing the ball to the tune of .362/.500/.638 (That’s a 1.138 OPS) and he’s being productive. In 14 games he’s scored 10 runs and driven in 11 RBI. If one must find complaint he’s struck out more frequently, 13 times, but he’s also walked more frequently, also 13 times, so that’s a shallow argument. He’s even stolen a base! So how excited should all this make us?
Extremely!
The Mets have not had the best of luck when it comes to their outfield. Sure, they’ve had their Carlos Beltrans, Cliff Floyds and so on, but they haven’t really had stand-outs in the corners since the days of Daryl Strawberry and Kevin McReynolds. Michael Conforto has the stuff to be a stand-out hitter and he could probably start doing that in the MLB today… but he won’t.
There is only one scenario where Conforto makes the jump to the majors in 2015 and that involves a significant injury to Curtis Granderson or Michael Cuddyer. Othwerwise, the Mets will be content to let Conforto finish the year strongly with Binghamton or Las Vegas and let him take a firm hold on the position next Spring. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be excited. I, for one, am still extremely excited by what Conforto appears to be.
AAA:
Matt Reynolds is hot again – His 10 game OPS is .955 and he could be close to getting the call the next time the infield has needs.
AA:
Luis Cessa has an MLB future – Not on a team with Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz, but a future in the MLB.
Robert Gsellman settles down – His first start in Binghamton was bad, but he’s had two quality starts since then.
Aderlin Rodriguez might be quietly successful – We’ve almost forgotten him, but he’s having a fairly solid year.
A+:
Akeel Morris is ready for a promotion – He’s been solid all season and needs to be tested at a higher level.
Brandon Nimmo in rehab games – He’s back in action and will be rejoining the Binghamton Mets soon.
Dominic Smith is still super-hot – No pitcher in the FSL wants to see him in the batter’s box these days. They may soon get their wish as a promotion is not out of the question.
A:
Wuilmer Becerra is the real deal – Looks like the Mets traded one Cy Young winning pitcher at the tail end of his career for three promising prospects.
Eudor Garcia might be the best 3rd base prospect – With Jhoan Urena having a slow year, Garcia has been a revelation.
Casey Meisner officially overdue for promotion – His last bad start came a month ago… and it wasn’t even that bad.
David Roseboom is a reliever of note – Usually you don’t need to pay much attention to minor league relievers, but Roseboom seems to be another exception.
R:
Brandon Brosher picks up where he left off – This prospect can hit the cover off the ball and may become a name we all know.
His bat looks solid. Funny, but he profiles like a young Cuddyer.
Here’s something that I just don’t understand. Other teams seem to move their prospects up through the minors quickly. Cubs. Astros. Dodgers. Rangers. Nats. Angels. They’ve all accelerated players. Mets seem like they are being uber-conservative with Conforto. Why is that? And then they promote a kid for single A all the way to the Show? What’s up with that? It’s hard to get a bead on their philosophy or their development strategy. Any insights?
On Morris, they got into a pinch and he was on the 40-man. The other relief options (Alvarez and somebody else) were simply undeserving.
This is a temporary move.
I hope Conforto comes up this year, personally. Even in a part-time role, he could help them win these “meaningful games” in September.
The only thing about how they handled Conforto was not starting him at St.Lucie or higher. Otherwise he’s on the fast track for delivery next year. Having high paid veterans holding down the corner OF positions certainly doesn’t help either.
Morris— a pinch of a need for s ready arm— and his work has been about commanding two pitches, unlike a starters who are building 3-4 pitches and stamina. If you command the pitches, and you believe in throiwing them, the level doesn;t count as much as the execution, for relievers.
Conforto is now at AA— he could jump directly to the show…. AAA is Parking and final buffing
Right now, if Granderson or Cuddyer get hurt and miss significant time, Conforto will get the call. It’s all a matter of time.
Matz and Conforto are challenging the Mets FO to be bold – not just in calling them to the show in short order, but to seriously consider whether keeping around the relics of the last awful half dozen years – Niese and Gee specifically – is worth it on the (increasingly faint) hope they can get something valuable in return instead of swallowing hard, taking little in return and doing addition by subtraction. Likewise, in the case of Conforto, he will challenge the notion that Cuddyer and Granderson must start every day because they’re getting paid a lot rather than considering that those two plus Conforto would make for a potentially potent threesome fitting into two corner outfield spots.
Editor’s Note – Please do not capitalize words in your post, as that is a violation of our Comment Policy.
I agree with this analysis. The idea that old veterans like Cuddyer and Granderson must play every day — and that their talent leaves no room for Conforto to squeeze in — is just ludicrous. With more rest, it’s likely they would be more productive.
If Mets are in genuine pursuit of their first playoff appearance since 2006, they should put the best players on the field. It’s so obvious that it’s painful to type. Of course there is room for Conforto in 2015.
Cuddyer could always be moved in the off-season if that’s necessary. Thinking Curtis can’t be dealt.
How come you have nothing on Travis Trijeron. He’ been hitting over 300 all season at Vegas. He a corner outfielder with power. Why is he off the radar?
Trying to shoehorn Conforto into the outfield doesn’t necessarily work. If you tthink Terry’s having a tough time with the 6-man rotation wait till he has to with this. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be all for benching Grandy in favor of Conforto but that’s just not going to happen. Problem is getting Conforto enough ABs. Sitting Grandy against some lefties might be something to look at and spelling Cuddyer once a week or so might be a way to go but to I don’t see this all happening till next year.
Very excited.
I’m as excited as the next guy, but maybe we should wait longer than 14 games before promoting the kid two levels, and three in one year, in order to basically sit 4 days out of the week.
Who suggested he be promoted for the bench?
Some people are over-zealous and assume he’d ascend to the majors and be better than Cuddyer or Granderson.
I’ve only said that if a corner outfielder is hurt for any length of time he should get a shot.
Conforto is someone to be very excited about and you have stated the correct case when he should be promoted.
Becerra is going to ice the cake in the Dickey trade.
Roseboom is a nice pitcher, a SAL all star in fact, but he is a little older than the league average for this level. He needs to move up after the break and test his stuff against more seasoned competition. Roseboom is good but he doesn’t stand out. He is like many other good pitchers that have passed through Savannah. I am not damning Roseboom but actually praising the depth of the Mets minor league system.