FRAZIER GOES BOOM!
Mets stay upbeat as Todd’s HR means happy 4th in Canada
TORONTO — It was hard to understand in the whirlwind of those first few months. Michael Conforto was just coming to grips with his giant leap from Double-A to the big leagues; he was learning about life in New York after being plucked from Binghamton. The Mets were on a roll and the run to the World Series just seemed natural.
But looking back now, Conforto remembers the voice of reason and reality.
“Michael Cuddyer would tell me, ‘Hey, just understand some guys play their whole career and they never make it this far. Cherish it.’ I remember that a lot these days,” Conforto said, trying to explain how he deals mentally with the Mets’ meltdown for the second season in a row. “For me personally it’s just trying to find a silver lining. It’s good for me to understand how things work. Understanding the business side, when things are going good and you are going to be buyers.
“And then when you are sellers…”
Conforto shrugged before he added, “Kind of like the rumors we are hearing now.”
In parts of four seasons in the big leagues, Conforto is now likely to see his second Mets’ selloff. With their 6-3 victory over the Blue Jays Wednesday night, the Mets have won just seven of their last 30 games and have gone 17-39 since May 1.
Yet another sign that they have started to look past a lost 2018 season and focus on the future was a meeting manager Mickey Callaway called last weekend.
He gathered a group of core young position players before a game in Miami. He challenged Conforto, Brandon Nimmo, Wilmer Flores, Dominic Smith and Kevin Plawecki to play with energy and play the “right way.”
“He asked us to try to bring the energy a little bit. You know, with us being the young guys, fresh into the league and having so much to play for, he wanted to see us play with a lot of energy,” Conforto said.
The point that stuck with him from that meeting, Conforto said, was that he needs to start stepping into a bigger role in team leadership for the future.
Wednesday night, Conforto did it on the field. He was 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. In his last 20 games, Conforto has five doubles, three homers, 10 RBI and 14 walks for a .379 OPS.
But he knows he needs to do even more. “If I am going to be a guy who is going to be sticking around here, I’ve got to step into a little bit more of a leadership role. Doesn’t mean I have to be ‘rahrah,’ but lead by example, do all the right things,” Conforto said. “He kind of wanted us to develop an identity as a group, like these guys are the guys who are going to do things the right way, they are going to get the job done. They are going to execute, hustle and play the game the right way. He was asking that of us, to try, as bad as things are right now, try to go out there and have fun and play like a kid.”
For the 25-year-old, an AllStar in 2017 before his season came crashing to an end with a devastating shoulder injury, that feeling shouldn’t be all that hard to remember. In 2015, he was a 23-year-old playing on the biggest stage in the world and having a blast. Still, as the Mets continue to free fall this season, that all can seem like ages ago.
“When I came up, things were going great. You think this is the way things are going to be for a long time. You think you are going to be with the same guys for a long time and the guys on that team wanted to make sure how special that was in ’15, how special the group of guys was,” Conforto said. “But now, obviously we have to deal with a different situation.
“Obviously, it’s more fun if we’re leading the National League East, but it’s not over yet. We still got a very big chunk of the season left and nobody’s been traded yet. You do it for the guys around you. You do it because that’s why we play the game, to win.”