Conforto to go under the knife
2018 spring in doubt
AS EXPECTED, Michael Conforto will have surgery to repair the torn capsule in his left shoulder, suffered when he dislocated it swinging the bat Aug. 24. The outfielder is expected to have the surgery this week, which means that his recovery could push into 2018 spring training.
“It’s going to be months,” Mets assistant GM John Ricco said. “Until he has the surgery, I don’t think I’m ready to put a time frame on it. It’s going to be a considerable rehab. I don’t want to speculate until he actually has it and they go in and see what the surgery entails and have a better idea after that.”
Conforto will have the surgery performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic in California.
With the Mets’ farm system very thin and having lost Yoenis Cespedes for the rest of the season with a strained right hamstring after trading away Curtis Granderson and Jay Bruce, the Mets signed Nori Aoki on Saturday.
Aoki, 35, was released by Toronto on Aug. 29. He hit .274 with 13 doubles, one triple, five home runs, 27 RBI and 32 runs scored in 83 games combined between the Blue Jays and Houston Astros this year.
The Mets called him earlier this week, they agreed to the deal Friday night and he arrived in Houston in the middle of Saturday’s first game of a split doubleheader. He started the second game and went 1-for-5.
“I like that we have a major league outfielder,” Terry Collins said.
It’s a stopgap for the Mets to finish the season, but with Conforto coming off major surgery, the Mets will have to think about their outfield heading into 2018.
“We got to figure out is that something we have to plan for,” Ricco said. “We come out of surgery and doctors say everything looked good, he’ll be ready for spring training then I think we operate on one level.
“If they say it’s going to be a longer situation or the prognosis isn’t as good, we’ll have to go down another path. I’m not ready yet to go either way.”
The surgery has a recovery and rehab time of four to six months, according to Dr. Armin Tehrany, orthopedic surgeon, shoulder & knee specialist and founder of Manhattan Orthopedic Care. While he has not examined Conforto, Dr. Tehrany also said that it will be hard for the Mets to know the prognosis until he has the surgery.
“It depends on the quality and amount of the tissue around the tear,” Tehrany said.
With Cespedes out for the rest of the season, his second extended stint on the disabled list because of a leg issue, the Mets need to start thinking about their contingency plans not just for the outfield, but for producing power.
There are some in the Mets organization who are concerned about Conforto’s ability to come back, at least for next year. The 24-yearold rebuilt his body and swing last offseason and hit a career-high 27 home runs this season.
And in two and a half years, Cespedes, who played 81 games in his first year of a four-year, $110 million contract, has not proven that he can keep himself healthy and stay in the lineup consistently. The Mets have few other options to produce power in their lineup heading forward.
Tradition power positions first base and third base are question marks. The Mets were awaiting final word on David Wright, who was seeing team doctors this week after being shut down in his attempt to come back from June 2016 neck surgery. Dominic Smith has struggled to hit at the major league level and has never projected to be much of a power hitter.
They will need to consider that going into the offseason.
For, now, the Mets have realized they needed a third major league outfielder.
After trying minor league journeyman Travis Taijeron and even veteran infielder Jose Reyes in the outfield, they signed Aoki.
Aoki has hit .285 with 128 doubles, 21 triples, 33 home runs, 211 RBI, 361 runs scored and 93 stolen bases in 732 major league games with Milwaukee, Kansas City, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston and Toronto.