Conforto Era must begin now in Citi
PHILADELPHIA — Let’s not overthink this, Mets. Michael Conforto needs to play. Nearly every day. Teams crave young talent like the sweet-swinging Conforto. Jay Bruce is red hot, and his two home runs Monday night powered the Mets to a 4-3 win over the mistake-prone Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, but the truly successful teams mix in their good young talent. The solution is to give Conforto more playing time in center field instead of Curtis Granderson and also use four players for three spots — Conforto, Granderson, Bruce and Lucas Duda. Give Yoenis Cespedes an occasional day off. The danger is losing defense at first because Bruce is not a proven first baseman, but so be it. The way he is hitting the ball (.870 slugging percentage), it doesn’t matter. His two-run blast in the eighth off lefty Joely Rodriguez snapped the 2-2 tie. When Juan Lagares comes back, this situation will get stickier. The Mets could trade Granderson or Bruce, but the baseball gods are smiling again on Sandy Alderson. He couldn’t find a taker for Bruce, and Bruce is carrying the Mets offense. Conforto (.833 slug) needs to play and would help the offense. “We’re not swinging the bats as a team,” Terry Collins said. Conforto, 24, could help. He has made the adjustments the Mets wanted him to make. Conforto is like a mini Kyle Schwarber, also 24. His swing is that good. The Cubs find a way to play their best talent. That’s why they finally won a World Series. The Mets need to do the same. Even Lenny Dykstra has taken up the Conforto cause. Conforto got his first start of the year Sunday and homered in a 5-2 win over the Marlins. On Monday, he was back on the bench, even though the Phillies were throwing right-hander Jerad Eickhoff. When I asked Collins what he is going to do when Lagares returns, he answered: “You’re talking to the wrong guy.”
What would he like to do? “It doesn’t matter,” Collins said.
This is a decision that will be made by Alderson & Co. The Mets are having front-office discussions trying to figure this all out, but Conforto needs to play. He produced 17 home runs through his first 100 games as a Met. Only Darryl Strawberry (22) and David Wright (20) hit more.
Looking at his outfield, Collins told me: “I’ve got three guys who hit 30 homers last year. They got big track records. We’ll try and pick some spots. We certainly committed ourselves to make sure we keep these guys rested, so we’ll try to get [Conforto] in there, but I don’t know how much or when. You got the big guy in left field. He needs to be in there.”
True, but even Cespedes (.154) could use a day off. No one, though, is struggling as much as Jose Reyes (.037).
“I got the FBI looking for the real Jose Reyes right now,” Collins joked.
Collins prefers to have proven defense at first.
“I think Jay Bruce can do it, but for me, right now, he just doesn’t have the experience,” Collins said.
All that makes sense, but Conforto needs to play. Conforto’s approach is simple. “I’m just trying to stay relaxed at the plate and not try to do too much when I get the opportunity because they have been sparingly lately,” he said. “I think that is what I was doing when I first came up and so it’s been working.”
Conforto has a beautiful swing but can he continue to produce with limited at-bats?
“I can do what I can with one atbat a game,” said Conforto, who did not get an at-bat Monday night. “I can’t go up there to try to hit a fiverun home run every time, so just doing what I can, focus on my job and not going beyond that and not trying to make the starting lineup the next day.
“In the end, it’s going to be a body of work that helps me.”
Conforto needs to play, for now and the future. Figure it out, Mets.