He may have returned as the team’s primary center fielder.
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With Cespedes’ leg becoming an issue and the offense struggling and needing Conforto’s bat, the Mets are asking an bad lot of the 23-year-old Conforto to overcome their poorly constructed outfield roster. And keeping Cespedes’ bat in the lineup is the priority. Cespedes has recently been bothered by discomfort in his right quadriceps and is less than 100 percent healthy.
“I’m going to certainly talk to him in the morning or when he gets here tomorrow”, Collins said. We need him to hit and we need him to hit a lot. “And one I didn’t think was sufficient”.
“It was a very productive couple of weeks”, said Conforto, who singled in the ninth inning Monday night as a pinch hitter for Lagares. It was the first time in his major league career Conforto had played anywhere but left field.
Collins said he wanted to give Cespedes two days of rest before the Mets open a key three-game series against the Miami Marlins on Friday. So Conforto’s center-field acclimation will need to occur on the fly in the majors.
Collins has already implemented a plan to restrict Cespedes to left field. Curtis Granderson, once a pretty good center fielder, is way past his sell date at that position as a regular, even if he fills in there once in a while.
Later, Conforto said he recalled having played some centerfield for Oregon State. Collins responded by saying, “I think that’s asking a lot”, considering Granderson’s diminished range at age 35.
After tearing up Triple-A to the tune of a.344/.420/.623 slash line in Las Vegas, the 23-year-old franchise star-of-the-future will be in uniform tonight in Chicago when the Mets send Steven Matz (7-5, 3.38 ERA) to the mound to face lefty ace Jon Lester (9-4, 3.01 ERA). Juan Lagares has won a gold glove playing center field, but has been unable to produce enough at the plate to earn a full-time role.
Because Wrigley Field has a relatively compact outfield and Conforto had no time to tune up, Collins initially planned to have Cespedes start Tuesday in center field against the Cubs. That helped the Mets hang on for a much-needed 2-1 win over the Cubs Tuesday night.
On Sunday, before the Las Vegas 51s’ scheduled game, Michael Conforto was summoned into the office of Wally Backman, who asked a fairly straightforward question. Conforto had been in an 8-for-75 rut before his June 25 demotion.
“I think it’s a testament to what I’ve been working on”, he said. “There was a period of obviously being upset, and you’ve got to go through that”.
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“I just worked on trying to stay through the ball, worked on using my lower half a little bit better, getting my weight shifted a little bit further back just to start in my stance”. Now they do. I guess we’ll see.
