Rejected NY Mets contract extension finally catches up to Michael Conforto

Michael Conforto finally has a deal. He’ll join the Chicago Cubs on a minor league deal with a $2 million salary if he makes the club along with some incentives. The former New York Mets outfielder has bounced around the West Coast with two years on the San Francisco Giants and last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

His three trips into free agency have been wild. It began with rejecting the Mets qualifying offer after the 2021 season only for an injury during the lockout to occur and eliminate him from everyone’s wishlist due to an inability to play in 2022. He later signed with the Giants for $18 million apiece in 2023 and 2024. Last year, the Dodgers gave him $17 million.

Conforto hasn’t been nearly the same player he was early on in his Mets career. Batting just .199 last year with a .333 slugging percentage, it’s no shock to see him settle with such a beleaguered contract. Although he has bankrolled $53 million in the previous 3 seasons, it’s a reminder of how much he left on the table.

Michael Conforto is still trying to recover financially from his rejected Mets contract extension

The story goes that prior to 2021, the Mets made Conforto a five-year offer in the $100-120 million range. Conforto had a poor 2021 campaign, but the Mets still extended him the qualifying offer after the eason. They threw a lot of money his way and at every turn he was ready to reject it.

The vagueness of $100-120 million puts the contract anywhere from $20-24 per year. Conforto hasn’t been too far below in AAV over the last three years, but with no salary at all in 2022 and now a minor league deal from the Cubs for 2026, it doesn’t look like he’ll ever get to what the Mets once allegedly offered him. He officially has no chance of coming close to reaching that total.

The new contract, at the minimum of $2 million, will push career earnings just over $80 million. A one-time All-Star, zero recipient of an MVP vote, and history of not winning any major awards, it’s almost astonishing the Mets ever did go as high as they did.

There was a time when Conforto was thought of as the lead dog on the Mets roster with Brandon Nimmo being the secondary outfielder on the team. Nimmo ended up with the massive contract many first thought Conforto would receive. Nimmo, strangely enough, seemed to evolve into a player with some of Conforto’s abilities. Nimmo added power to his arsenal while Conforto seems to have lost a lot of those offensive skills that made him a regular in the middle of the Mets order.

Not too long ago, it looked like Pete Alonso might’ve been in the same boat as Conforto with a rejected contract offer. Then came the Baltimore Orioles. The Polar Bear ended up with the same dollar amount over only 5 seasons rather than 7.

Any regular playing time for Conforto on the Cubs roster will be hard to find with the roster already full of outfielders. Conforto couldn’t make it in a loaded Dodgers lineup. Expect a trip back into free agency at some point in 2026 and a community of Mets fans demanding he comes back to New York to replace a slumping hitter.