A year later, Conforto has shouldered big load

LOS ANGELES — As the Mets’ charter flight descended on Los Angeles International Airport, Michael Conforto had a flashback Sunday night.

Thursday marks the oneyear anniversary of Conforto’s surgery to repair the posterior capsule in his left shoulder, a procedure that noted surgeon Neal ElAttrache performed only miles from Dodger Stadium.

Almost one year later, after several returns to the area for checkups, the former All-Star outfielder is still trying to reach previous heights. But at least a trip to Southern California doesn’t entail a visit with ElAttrache.

“It’s good to be flying here and playing a game,” Conforto said Monday before going 0-for-4 in the Mets’ 4-2 win over the Dodgers.

A day earlier Conforto hit his 20th homer of the season, a two-run blast in San Francisco, that continued a second-half surge. Conforto entered slashing a respectable .261/.343/.484 with nine homers and 25 RBIs since the All-Star break. It’s a vast improvement over his .216/ .344/.366 line with 11 homers and 30 RBIs in the first half.

The 20-homer season isn’t a huge deal to Conforto, but it also represents a baseline level of consistency that might have been in question entering the season.

“It means I have stayed healthy this year and I have played in a lot of games, it’s something to take away from this year, to be able to put out that power consistently,” Conforto said.

“But it’s not what I set out to do this year. That wasn’t one of my goals to go out there and hit 20 homers. I wanted to stay healthy first and continue to do the things I was doing last year. There have been some ups and downs.”

Conforto’s surgery followed a dislocation of the shoulder he sustained on a swing-and-miss. He says he was told by ElAttrache and team orthopedist David Altchek he stood a 75 percent chance of future dislocations if he didn’t undergo surgery. But with surgery, both doctors gave him a 99 percent chance of avoiding future dislocations.

“I knew I wasn’t going to have a normal offseason,” said Conforto, who didn’t resume swinging a bat until late-January. “And I was hoping I wouldn’t miss too much time during the season, so I did what I could to crush my rehab and ended up missing five games.”

In retrospect, Conforto may have rushed his return. The Mets had originally set May 1 as his return date, but Conforto’s comeback occurred three weeks early.

“I don’t have any regrets on anything,” Conforto said. “If I wait and play against extended-spring guys or I play in the minor leagues would that have just pushed back figuring out what I need to do at the major league level? It’s tough to tell. I feel like I am in a good place now and I am looking forward to the offseason and moving ahead.”

Conforto’s plan this offseason is a return to his old habits: resting for about a month before re- suming hitting in the cage.

But there is still a final month in which Conforto wants to continue his second-half surge and see how close he can come to reaching hitting coach Pat Roessler’s projections. At the All-Star break, Roessler scribbled numbers he expected from Conforto in the second half, but didn’t reveal them to the player. Once the season ends, Roessler intends to reveal the prediction to Conforto.

“At the end of the year he will show me and we’ll talk about it,” Conforto said. “Until then I just have to keep going.”