Mets: Where will Michael Conforto fit into the franchise’s history?

Michael Conforto has plenty of baseball left to play. When it’s all over with the New York Mets, where does he fit into the franchise’s history?

We know what opinions are like. We also know everyone has one. When it comes to discussions involving the talent of New York Mets outfielder Michael Conforto, those opinions vary greatly.

Conforto is caught between stardom and a solid producer. There are those Mets fans out there who overrate him by extremes and those who will never appreciate what he does—even if he rescues your kitten from up a tree.

When his time with the Mets is over, how will we remember him most?

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Numbers play a big role in how players are ranked in the minds of future generations. Generations of Mets fans never saw Tom Seaver play for the club and yet we can all agree, he’s the number one player in franchise history.

Conforto is much tougher to rank because he is far from an elite player like Seaver. Conforto’s numbers fall somewhere among the best players in Mets history, often higher than I think we realize.

It really all depends on which numbers you value most. If you’re from the Stone Age and still think batting average matters a lot, Conforto isn’t very good. At .253 for his career heading into 2020, he has been unproductive in this area of his game.

However, there are plenty of Mets who hit similarly and are highly regarded. Howard Johnson was a .251 career hitter with the Mets. Beloved catcher Gary Carter was a .249 during his time with the Amazins.

I understand they did other things for the Mets. Purely from a numbers standpoint though, Scooter matches up well even with some of the better players.

Conforto doesn’t rank too high in the OBP department, tied for 16th place all-time in Mets history among those qualified with enough at-bats according to Baseball-Reference. The number puts him alongside Wally Backman who I think many Mets fans like but understand isn’t a legend.

Both ahead and behind Conforto on this list, we find notable players in franchise history and some surprising names.

Steve Henderson, for instance, is tied with Robin Ventura for 8th all-time. The greatest shortstop in franchise history, Jose Reyes, is all the way down at number 33 in a tie with Joe Christopher and Ike Davis.

For Conforto, his place seems to be most cemented in power production. He is 8th in both slugging percentage and OBP. This tells me he’s one of the better sluggers in franchise history and a guy who knows how to get on base through many means.

It doesn’t, however, make him a top ten or twenty player in franchise history.

For years, many of us have waited for Conforto to break out with an MVP-caliber campaign. He never did. He never may.

Still, he has been a pretty well-rounded player. With a 162-game average of 31 doubles, 31 home runs, and 87 RBI, he’s a guy any team would want in the middle of the lineup.

All that’s missing for Conforto is that one standout season. Hopefully, if it does arrive, it happens when he’s wearing an orange and blue uniform and not some other team’s colors.

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When we look back at Conforto’s career many years from now, I think more fans will come around to realizing how superb he was. In the moment, suffering through the frustration he does bring to the field at times due mostly to inconsistency, we lose sight.