WASHINGTON – “As is customary when the season begins, [we are] focusing on player performance, “Scott Boras wrote in a text message to The Post on Sunday in response to a question about Michael Conforto, and consolidated the likelihood that his client would sign an extension with the Mets before arrive at the free agency in November.
If I led the Mets, there would be fewer players I would like to close for the foreseeable future than Conforto, the self-harvesting Astel that has never represented the organization in any way other than exemplary.
Also if he directed the Mets? There are fewer players with an uncertain future that would cause me less concern for the present. Although an unresolved situation of Francisco Lindor could have hung over this club like the Sword of Damocles, Conforto continues to follow quietly.
“Right now I’m focused on the Mets,” Conforto said Sunday, after the team finished training in the National Park. “I’d like you to ask me about a situation I didn’t experience in a game we went out and won. I’d like us to talk about baseball.”
Baseball will finally greet the Mets Monday night, four days later than expected, as they aim to open the 2021 season against the Phillies 3-0 at Citizens Bank Park. They spent the weekend in the country’s capital getting loose after the nationals, their first planned opponent, experienced a COVID outbreak.
Lindor, 27, will make his Mets debut with a ten-year, $ 341 million contract starting next season, his fate settled after a serious drama. Conforto will begin his seventh year in a Mets uniform, his eighth in the organization, with destiny in the air. For better or worse, Steve Cohen gave Lindor a clear tab, once the team acquired him from the Indians in January, as his “I’m not the Wilpons” flag to plant on the Mets planet.
Conforto, 28, only expressed his happiness for his new teammate and said: “I think he got what he deserved. I think it’s good for the game. “
He added: “Obviously, everyone knows that Steve Cohen is a rich guy. He is a wealthy Mets fan. But I think I was pretty clear that I wouldn’t throw money carelessly. He was going to trust his guys he hired to make baseball decisions. “
Fortunately for Comfort, you’ll think, Sandy Alderson oversees baseball decisions as team president; as general manager, Alderson approved the selection of Conforto 10th in the 2014 amateur draft. No, this did not lead to finding many points in common at the time, although Boras is more comfortable than most of his brothers wearing its players in the free market.
“I guess I could see the team looking very different over the next two years and I thought about it,” Conforto said, though the position body could be pretty intact if Conforto stays.
It has proven to be fairly consistent over the previous four years, with its OPS + ranging from 122 (2018) to 153 (last year) and its games being recorded at 90% and above each of the three previous seasons. The natural if imperfect comparison, based on the current market, would be George Springer, who received $ 150 million in six years from the Blue Jays as the best hitter in a more important defensive position. However, Conforto is three and a half years younger than Springer, does not have the Astros sign theft scandal on his record, and has established his Big Apple and Mets in good faith.
“He’s one of our natural leaders here,” Luis Rojas said of Conforto. “He is a boy who bleeds blue and orange. He cares a lot about the team.
Conforto dropped some news about his Zoom audience when he revealed he caught the coronavirus shortly before spring training. He statistically recorded a blah spring workout and expect no effects of the disease.
Also, if you are the Mets? Enjoy this last episode of this program with the knowledge that, if a typical year of Conforto, you can afford to outdo anyone for their services. What if it’s a typical Comfort year? You should probably do this.