Mets: Michael Conforto misses third straight game with stiff back

The Mets stud outfielder has been dealing with some tightness in his back, but before Wednesday night’s game, he said he’s feeling a lot better.

The Mets close out their first series of the year with the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs on Wednesday, but they’ll be doing so without the help of Michael Conforto.

Conforto — who has cooled off a little since his absolutely torrid start — will sit out the series finale while he deals with a stiff back. The Mets are obviously taking every precaution to keep their star outfielder off the disabled list, so they’ll give him all the time off that he needs.

According to Conforto, the back issues creeped up on Sunday — the day after the doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves — as he had trainers working on him throughout the game to keep his back loose. Thankfully though, after a few days of rest, Conforto’s feeling better, so this latest day off could be seen as more of a precautionary measure.

With the team’s history of mishandling injuries, this latest setback for Conforto will naturally raise some concern, but the Kid is not really worried. He spoke to reporters before Wednesday night’s game and sounded confident that he’ll be back out there before we know it.

Nevertheless, with some of the most prominent Mets having back issues over the past couple of seasons (Lucas Duda, Neil Walker, and who could forget the Captain David Wright), we’ll all keep holding our collective breath until we see Scooter back out there.

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Conforto is available to pinch hit off the bench in this last game, so hopefully we see him make an appearance at some point. The Mets are currently playing with a short bench, so having him be available could be huge.