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Remember when Michael Conforto got demoted last year to the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate?
Don’t worry, most, if not all of the Flushing faithful have probably long forgotten that 33-game, minor-league stint since Conforto is one of the hottest hitters not named Aaron Judge in the early part of the 2017 season.
“Yeah, he’s pretty special. He’s gonna be a special player. I’m glad he’s on the Mets,” Lucas Duda said late Tuesday after the Mets rolled to a 9-3 victory against the Padres behind Conforto’s fireworks.
The 24-year-old Conforto led off Tuesday’s game with a home run to right at the expense of Padres starter Jhoulys Chacin. After the Mets sent all nine batters to the plate, Conforto greeted Chacin with a two-run single to left field. Conforto was 2-for-2 with three RBI in the first frame, and he wasn’t done with his bat.
“He’s in one of those grooves that great hitters get into that you just don’t want to mess with them,” Terry Collins said of Conforto after the win.
Collins said that Conforto’s swing has changed from last year, and that the left-handed Conforto is not trying to wallop the baseball out of the park each at-bat.
“This guy, last year, he was red-hot the first five weeks, and started to cool down. You watch the base hit he got up the middle (Tuesday) on a breaking ball. He just stayed back, let it come to him, didn’t try to do too much with it,” said Collins. “Those are the things he’s doing now that he didn’t do last year.”
After Tuesday’s 3-for-4 performance – which included two solo homers and the two-run single – Conforto raised his average to .333, and is thriving in the leadoff spot. Conforto said he dedicated his offseason to proving that his debut in 2015 – including his stellar World Series turn − was no fluke.
“You look at this offseason, I put a lot of work in, took a step back and looked at what happened the year before,” said Conforto. “Knowing that I put the work in makes it easier to come out here and play. Being confident at the plate, I just go out there and have fun.
“I think I had some expectations last year, maybe I was pressing a little bit. It wasn’t a conscious thought of I want to hit the ball out of the ballpark. Obviously I wanted to produce. Sometimes you get in your own way,” added Conforto.
He’s doing anything but getting in his own way in 2017, and when Yoenis Cespedes comes back, Conforto would likely be moved to center field since Curtis Granderson has been struggling mightily at the plate. The “sophomore jinx” that Collins alluded to when discussing Conforto’s 2016 season is long gone.
“The scouting reports got around, and again, last year because of the swing changes we saw, I thought (Conforto) was trying to hit home runs last year,” said Collins. “He kind of got a little bit of an arc in his swing and created a couple holes. Right now, he’s back. Back to the kid we saw when he first came to the major leagues.”