NY Mets: 4 best Michael Conforto moments in his career

Michael Conforto has had a great career with the New York Mets. He got drafted at #10 overall in 2014, came up as a 22-year-old rookie in the midst of the 2015 playoff run, and he’s now played seven seasons in orange and blue.

The sweet-swinging lefty hit 132 homers, scored 400 runs, drove in 396 runs, had an OPS of .824 and an OPS+ and wRC+ of 124, and tallied 16.9 fWAR. He was an All-Star in 2017 and selected to the All-MLB Second Team in 2020.

Conforto has been a part of many historic moments. The World Series run in 2015, the Wild Card game in 2016, and the All-Star game in 2017 were some of the more memorable ones, but he had some big moments throughout his time in Queens. Let’s take a look at four of those.

Michael Conforto’s best Mets moments #4: Throwing Abraham Almonte out at home to save the game in the bottom of the 9th on 7/28/21

Don’t run on Conforto.

Edwin Diaz came in to pitch in the bottom of the ninth on July 29th, 2021 against the Braves. He had a 2-1 lead, but gave up a ground rule double to Abraham Almonte to put the tying run in scoring position with no outs. He was able to retire Guillermo Heredia on a fly ball to Conforto for the first out.

Ehire Adrianza came up next and hit a line drive single to right field. Conforto charged and fielded the ball on one hop as Almonte rounded third. Conforto threw a dart to James McCann on the fly who made the swipe tag for the out to save the run and record the second out.

Almonte has some speed (69th percentile sprint speed) but Conforto has a strong, very accurate arm, so sending him with one out was a bold move from Ron Washington. Adrianza advanced to second on the throw, but Diaz got Kevin Smith to lineout to left field for the final out of the game.

Conforto has 41 outfield assists in his career, 21 of them coming from right field. Seven of those were double plays.

Michael Conforto’s best Mets moments #3: Juggling catch vs. Orioles 9/10/20

This is another one of Conforto’s web gems that saved a game.

Chasen Shreve started the top of the 6th inning and got Cedric Mullins to pop out to Dom Smith at first base. Luis Rojas then brought in Jared Hughes to face the upcoming right-handed hitters. It looked like a good move at first, as Jose Iglesias lined out to Jeff McNeil in left field for the second out.

Then, Hughes lost control of the strike zone. He didn’t throw a single strike to Renato Nunez, walking him on four pitches. He then hit DJ Stewart on a 2-2 pitch, and then he hit Ryan Mountcastle on a 3-2 pitch. Rojas made another call to the bullpen, opting for lefty Justin Wilson to face Rio Ruiz with the bases loaded.

Ruiz got a front-door cutter low and in and drove it deep to right-center. Conforto sprinted straight back to the 370 sign by the bullpen bench. He leaped from the edge of the warning track, stuck out his arm, and snowconed the ball. As he landed, the ball started to roll out of his glove, but he secured it to insure the out before stopping himself in front of the fence.

Wilson put his arms up in shock. Ruiz put his hands on his head in disbelief as he approached second base. Smith was looking around the ballpark with his jaw wide open.

Statcast tells us that Conforto had only 4.9 seconds to cover the 78 feet from his starting position to the spot where he caught the ball. That ball only had a 20% catch probability, and he pulled it off to save three runs. The Mets would eventually win the game 7-6.

Michael Conforto’s best Mets moments #1: World Series homers 10/31/15

Welcome to the show, Scooter.

Conforto, then a 22-year-old rookie, had only played 56 regular season games and another 10 in the postseason. He had a good rookie season, but little did he know, his biggest moment would come in game four of the World Series.

He led off the bottom of the third inning against Chris Young. The soft-tossing righty threw an 87 mph fastball right down the middle and belt high. Conforto yanked it down the right field line, keeping it just inside the foul pole, and depositing that ball about halfway up the then Pepsi Porch. He rounded the bases, clapping and screaming after touching home. Mets up 1-0.

The lefty came up again in the bottom of the fifth inning with the Mets leading 2-1. This time, he was facing hard-throwing southpaw Danny Duffy. If there was one knock on Conforto’s rookie season, it’s that he struggled against lefties. In a small sample size, only 14 at-bats, he only hit .214 with a .481 OPS.

Conforto worked a 2-2 count before Duffy threw an 83 mph slider low in the middle of the zone. He was fooled, but he kept his front shoulder in and was able to drive the ball out to right-center off the roof of the Mets bullpen. Conforto screamed and fist pumped on his way to second base as Citi Field erupted for the second time that night.

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The Mets would go on to lose the game, but Conforto shined under the brightest lights in baseball. I hope the Mets are able to keep Conforto so we get more moments like this from him.