Michael Conforto is the last unsigned player who appeared among MLBTR’s Top 50 free agents at the start of the offseason. Easily the best player still available on the open market, Conforto has nevertheless remained without a team with just a week until Opening Day.
Agent Scott Boras offered an explanation for Conforto’s delay in signing this evening, telling Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic and Joel Sherman of the New York Post the outfielder suffered a right shoulder strain while training in January. Boras says Conforto is now healthy and is again hitting but that the issue slowed down both his offseason training routine and his hunt for a club. According to Rosenthal, negotiations with teams were on hold but resumed last week.
Conforto’s injury could partially clarify the hold-up in his finding a new club, although it doesn’t seem to completely explain the delay. After all, he suffered the strain in January, a time when MLB free agents were barred from communicating with teams anyhow. Sherman writes that Conforto has been hitting for five weeks, indicating he’d returned to batting practice well before the lockout was lifted on March 10. The delay in his resuming throwing ostensibly kept Boras from negotiating with teams in the immediate post-lockout signing spree, although that he’s been in contact with clubs for about a week suggests that only set back discussions around 10-14 days.
Unsurprisingly, Boras claimed that a now-healthy Conforto is drawing strong interest. However, he declined to project a timetable for the 29-year-old to sign. At the very least, that negotiations are ongoing would seem to reduce speculation among some fans that Conforto could wait until after the draft to put pen to paper. The left-handed hitter rejected a qualifying offer from the Mets at the start of the offseason, entitling New York to draft pick compensation if he signs elsewhere and costing a signing club a draft choice.
Waiting to sign until after the draft would remove that compensation from the equation, and a few qualified free agents like Stephen Drew and Dallas Keuchel have taken that approach in past offseasons. However, this year’s draft is scheduled to take place from July 17-19, later than the early-June drafts of the Drew/Keuchel era. That’d require Conforto sitting out more than half the season, a course of action which never seemed likely.
Conforto is coming off a down season from a results perspective, but his strikeout and walk rates were customarily strong. The left-handed hitter also posted better batted ball marks than his 14 homers and .153 ISO (slugging minus batting average) would indicate. He looks like a strong bounceback candidate, one who could upgrade most lineups around the league.
Nevertheless, it’s tough to pin down top suitors for Conforto, even at this stage of the offseason. The Marlins, Yankees, Padres and Rockies were linked to him before the lockout. Miami and Colorado have since gone in different directions to upgrade their outfields, while San Diego is reportedly reluctant to take on another big move that could push them above the luxury tax threshold. New York hasn’t addressed the outfield, but they’ve since added Anthony Rizzo and Josh Donaldson to the payroll.
The Blue Jays more recently checked in as part of their search for a lefty-hitting outfielder, but they acquired Raimel Tapia from Colorado last week. No other team has been definitively tied to Conforto throughout the winter, but Jon Heyman of the MLB Network suggested on his Big Time Baseball podcast last week the Rangers could jump into the mix.
I feel like he won’t sign with anyone until June.
Boras had to come up with some excuse. It’s never his or his client’s fault …
Buyer beware. Damaged goods. Plus Satan is his agent.
Satan, dad? Really? Yes, he can be grating, but he does his job really well, and that’s a bad thing?
Boras is abusing those poor billionaires who have no clue how to run a business.
Boras gets flashy big deals for his top shelf clients, but I feel like he comically overplays his hand with players who have some sort of red flag(s) on their resume and they end up leaving money on the table.
gbs: isn’t this a perfect example of Boras NOT doing his job well? He represents star clients. They get paid like stars. (Not Conforto though) What exactly is this wonderful contribution to the situation that he is adding?
Cosmo2, my response primarily was to the assertion that Boras is Satan, which is ridiculous. Boras typically gets his clients as much as, or often more than, expected. Of course nobody is perfect. Conforto apparently is an example of things not working out well, though his final deal will tell us if that’s true.
Well, yea, he’s certainly not Satan. I don’t think he’s a bad human being at all.
This is true. But it is also true that Boras is not a particularly credible source of accurate information about his clients. My guess is that the hate for him is actually in response to baseball media clapping like trained seals every time he opens his mouth.
It’s lazy journalism, but if enough are lazy, then it’s news. For my part, I pretty much ignore his self-serving talking points, not matter how bumper sticker clever they sounds.
I can’t believe Boras has so many Man Stans. ” omg fellas don’t be putting Boras down. He has done so much good for so many people!”
@gbs, dad has some kind of learning disability. Just ignore him.
Couldn’t you also say that about Satan? Lol
But it’s not June this year for the draft pick to disappear, it’s July.
True
I’d love to play boras in poker. Guy is so easily predictable.
He would take you for everything you had.
I think this is quite likely.
That makes no sense. If he waits until June no team will sign him until after draft in July.
If a team is going to wait until June to sign him they might as well wait until July to spare the draft pick.
My Boras BS Meter just went off
Boras doesn’t really bluff. Why would he?
That’s funny!
Big time BS. But it’s his job. Unfortunately his BS was in the wrong direction when he told Conforto not to accept the QO and there were going to be better opportunities out there. Bad year and a pick attached to him, it was already questionable if he was worth the QO to begin with.
Varitek all over again here with a guy who has/had no chance of getting real cash via FA, except to top it off.. This time the guy hurts himself over the offseason.. Boras almost always declines, he’ll never learn.
Maybe Conforto just didn’t want to play on the Mets. The player hires the agent.
You’re right, and I think it was mutual. It was reported that the Mets wanted turnover of the roster this year for personality reasons as much as performance reasons. Stroman and Syndergaard are two examples where their and ego and commitment to Twitter clearly outweighed the value of their performance on the field. We don’t know Conforto to be the same kind of self-serving personality; however, it’s fair to wonder if there was something going on there based on how little the club tried to retain him.
They offered him an $18.4m QO and were rumored to have offered him a multi-year $100m+ contract before last season. I wouldn’t call that “how little the club tried to retain him.”
If he wanted to go elsewhere, be my guest, and he is obviously getting his wish. At the moment, it’s looking to be a costly decision.
“Before last season”… You answered your own question.
@misterbill Those are two VERY different conditions, though. As for the $18.4m QO, since the value of the pick is currently estimated at $7m, and the Mets could reasonably calculate Conforto was going to turn down the QO, it was hardly a 1/18.4m offer in the traditional sense.
As for the rumored 5/100-120m prior to 2021, that offer was probably a modest mistake, given it bought out MC’s post-peak seasons. Did they really expect the 29-33 yo version of Conforto to be worth 15 WAR? You can also add $7m to that final figure since they Mets all but guaranteed themselves a pick of that value if they didn’t reach a multiyear deal with Conforto.
Still, with Boras getting 7- and 8-year deals for Choo, Werth, and Ellsbury, it’s hardly surprising Conforto’s eyes were bigger than what was likely to be on his plate.
I honestly think he makes a ton of sense for the Guardians on a short term deal, with a structure similar to Correa’s (but less money). Cleveland has the room in the budget for sure, they probably just don’t want to invest in anyone too long term. And Conforto is coming off a down year, a deal where he can opt out after year one and return to market without a QO attached if he does well seems like a good fit.
Cleveland has a short porch in RF that would probably be very good for his home run totals as well.
Something like 2/40 with opt out after year 1 or maybe even a 3 year deal would make sense to me. It’s not like the Guardians couldn’t afford to run a 70-90m payroll.
I’d love to have him here. I don’t see them offering more than 10 mil 1 year. We’re so gross.
Oh yeah, just awful. Ewwww…so disgusting…so gross. Averaging a stinky 90 wins a year over the last nine years. Can you even imagine anything so putrid as that?
Why would a team not likely to compete forfeit the signing penalties? What happens if he can’t be flipped at the trade deadline? Do you think he’s worth that risk? I looked at his stats and was surprised how good on paper outside of last year it looks. Especially playing in Flushing. He just never looked like a “great” outfielder to me. If a team feels he can be traded for a profit above the compensation. That’s the best reason to sign him
It’s a second round pick for them because they’re a revenue sharing recipient. If they aren’t competing they can very likely flip him for more than that’s worth at the deadline. I also think he would help them compete.
And I do think he’d be a good gamble based on what I’ve seen of his profile. But I’m not a GM so take it for what it’s worth.
Found Dolan’s burner account
23 teams have won a title more recently than Cleveland. What have all those 90 win seasons amounted to? The Indians’ transition to moneyball hasn’t worked out well, the only time they’ve won a playoff series during that span was when they were running a then-franchise record payroll
Every year this happens……
One FA guy that is a so-so name is left unsigned, and countless articles are written here as to the “progress” in negotiations; along with comments saying the guy is good, he’s no good, a small market team should exceed their budget because he’s better on paper than what they have, etc.
Last year it was pitcher Jake Odorizzi. One would think from reading comments here that he was the man to turn around a team. He got a 3/$23.5 deal with Houston. A so-so deal for a so-so starter. He pitched 104 innings for the Astros, was pretty much their #6 starter. Nothing earthshaking in his performance. Arguably helped their staff as a few young pitchers were brought along without having to overextend themselves.
Conforto is probably in the same boat this year, although he’s might be open to a one-year make-good contract. The problem is that most teams budgets are set. Also, teams like the Brewers, Marlins and Nationals made their closing OF moves (for far lower salaries than Boras appears to be asking). All that’s realistically left are the truly desperate owners that want to show their fans that they’re like really “trying to win”. You know. So the 2 patsie….errr sucker…..errr candidates left in 2022 are the Rangers and Twins. They can play with the DH and get the guy somewhere between 40o-500 PA’s.
The most likely option at this point is to wait for a major OF injury that a so-so called contender experiences.
Fletcherfan69 payroll has nothing to do with it. The playoffs once you get there is a complete crapshoot. That means every short series is 50/50. All you gotta do is make the playoffs. No team should be critiqued for averaging 90 wins, let’s criticize the fans during that time. How many sellouts have Cleveland had in that time? If you’re judging a teams success on if they win the world series or not then you better not be intelligently wondering why teams tank, and your making a argument that more teams should tank if only the team who wins the WS is successful.
I believe Mr. Cohen set down a marker with Mr. Boras.
Conforto is a nice player. By no means is he worth a QO for $18-plus. As I wrote, the Astros got Odorizzi for 3/$23.5.
I think Mr. Cohen knew full well that Conforto wanted off the Mets. His Tweets and pressure in 2021 to push a high OPS while firing Chili Davis who stresses a line-drive approach hurt Conforto, Smith, and McNeil. The Conforto QO turned the negotiations into a game of ‘chicken’. I don’t think Mr. Cohen wanted him on the team. I think he was happy to risk a QO knowing that Conforto/Boras were looking for a long-term contract and would reject it.
Once Conforto rejected the offer, the Mets got Marte @ 4 years and Canha @ 2 with an option year both for a lower AAV than Boras wanted; and at Conforto’s age he would have wanted far more than 4 years.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe the Marte signing is too many years considering his physical issues and age; while Canha was short and AAV reasonable. But both can play CF – albeit not at GG level – which Conforto cannot do. However, to Mr. Cohen that expenditure is not an issue.
Take a step back…..
Conforto is a decent player. Streaky; a good teammate, never a problem. But as with anyone playing in NYC he was made out to be more than his is. And Mr. Boras always overvalues his clients.
Mchael Conforto now has a sticker on him saying “Negotiations start at $18m-plus and accelerate for there”. This at a time when FO’s are looking at Tampa, Cleveland, Oakland, and other small market teams that have done fine knowing that one bad long-term contract can scuttle that team for years (and note the controlled moves Houston and SF make).
He’s way more than decent. As a hitter he’s basically Jose Abreu, and he plays a solid corner OF.
He’s better than Schwarber. I’d say he should at least hit that kind of compensation. The qualifying offer certainly doesn’t help especially in shorter term deals. It was a tough time to have your worst year.
Abreu is a money player whereas Conforto seems to only play for the money. Different positions but I’d take Abreu any day or night.
Conforto: 132 Hrs, 396 RBIs, 468 slg, OPS 824, OPS+ 124, BA 255
Abreu: 228 Hrs, 788, RBIs, 515 slg, OPS 865 OPS+ 135, BA. 290
As a hitter, Conforto isn’t anywhere near as good as Abreu.
Yes. Gross. I want to win. I don’t see any rings. Loser mentality.
Your supposed to look at stats, not rings, if you are building for the future.
Wow, way off here. not even close to Jose Abreu. Boras is that you?
How soon is now?
The Guardians are a disgrace. They should be spending more and it’s gotten to the point where I don’t see them as a legit playoff contender, even with the new rules.
Have to agree. You would think they’d at least have signed a significant FA as nothing more than a distraction from the name change. They need a solid 1B and/or OF to truly contend, and they got neither. I’m sure Dolan will say that if they’re close in July they’ll trade for one of those, but we all know they’ll end up getting a Kevin Seitzer type that doesn’t move the needle much.
Or perhaps a Ricardo Rincon..
2/40m from a low, low budget team, for a corner OFer worth less than a win in 2021? That wasn’t ever going to happen.
I really think the Reds should go get him.
No mention of the Diamondbacks here as a part of Michael Conforto’s market, even though they were quoted as “among the most interested in Conforto pre-lockout”.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/03/diamondbacks-marlins-interested-in-michael-conforto.html
Would be a good get for them. That OF’s looking pretty gross right now. But that’s also a really high pick to give up for a bad team.
This guy is overrated and will undoubtedly get a huge new contract somewhere that will yield disappointing results. You heard it here.
If anything he’s underrated.
I’d argue he’s rated
seamaholic 2
Yep, nothing says underrated like barely league average in a walk year. Such a pressure player.
Yeah, let’s ignore his previous 625 games as a big leaguer and the fact that numerous Mets had terrible years at the plate, so bad that they fired the hitting coach and manager. You should definitely rate him solely on this one previous season.
One thing nobody should do is base the ability of a player off who the hitting coach was. That has to be the dumbest comment on this thread.
seamaholic underrated? Thanks for the chuckle.
seamaholic 2 not buying that bs . Give it up Boras!
Heh.. Not a single ownership is willing to pay Conforto like a high impact player at this point. So how is he overrated? People love to throw around the word but don’t know what it means.
snoo48 some fans overrate him but teams don’t. Boras definitely has. Overrated is not a hard word to define and if you go back and look at some of the comments on previous articles and even this one you’ll find plenty of fans who are clearly overrating Michael Conforto. I would say that looking blindly passed the blah numbers and begging for your team to sign him is overrating him.
.255/.356/.468 for .824 ops and 124 ops+ career numbers which include his horrific 2021. 15.7 career WAR. Experience at and ability to play all 3 OF positions. dWAR generally doesn’t love his defense but a lot of advanced defensive stats do say otherwise and rate him favorably particularly in RF. Struggled as a rookie in ds and cs but was a monster in the ws while most of the team struggled offensively.
Not really sure how any of these are blah numbers. Is he an absolute star? No. But has he been a pretty damned good player this far in his career overall? Yes. They are better career numbers than Castellanos who is a butcher in field, older, and just got a 100 million dollar payday. Talent wise, the numbers say he’s probably somewhere between Castellanos and Springer. The 100-120 mil dollar extension he turned down is pretty much in line w what he probably should have been paid if he wasn’t hitting free agency coming off a truly terrible year.
As a side note one thing that hasn’t really been reported on much is that he actually had covid right before the season and one has to wonder if that had anything to do w his out of character bad year.
He costs a draft pick and has overpriced himself. Doesn’t mean he’s not very good.
He’s not overrated, he was a Met. Now watch him become the next Justin Turner
Curious if ChiSox would have interest if they could move Kimbrel’s salary.
Craig Kimbrel’s salary shouldn’t matter to a top World Series contender that would still be in no danger of crossing the luxury tax threshold by signing Michael Conforto for the 2022 season. Considering that Conforto would fill the White Sox perennial RF hole and also help balance out a predominantly right-handed batting order with his solid lefty bat, his addition should be a no-brainer. The only hold up with Conforto signing with the White Sox is owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s approval and the contract demands of agent Scott Boras.
The White Sox do have some decent current internal options and also two highly regarded Cuban outfield prospects in Yoelqui Céspedes and Oscar Colas who are on a fast track to their MLB debuts. I can understand the organization’s reluctance in signing Conforto to a long term deal but they should be very motivated in bringing him on board with a typical Boras short term ‘pillow’ contract.
The Sox have no good options for RF in 2022 at all. They have a gigantic hole.
All they have are some 1B/DH types that can’t play RF adequately and some prospects that may or may not be ready next year.
I don’t think the White Sox need an outfielder so badly that taking a risk on Conforto is necessary. Plus the current state of their minor league system really does not give them the leeway to take the gamble that he plays well enough to either justify the signing or move him for better than what they give up to acquire him.
The Sox are currently platooning DH’s in right field (one of them just got hurt catching a liner) and they’re starting Eloy in left. While Luis Robert can probably cover the whole outfield by himself, they absolutely need to acquire a real outfielder who can also hit.
They also have a gold glove caliber RF in Adam Engel. Conforto would be fine on a one-year deal. But they won’t break the bank on him nor will they give up a draft pick.
That “draft pick” might have mattered less had the White Sox tagged their own FA Carlos Rodon with one following his outstanding 2021 season. Just saying….
I’d say it’s 100 percent the reason. It was clear from the beginning they had a tight budget and apparently opted to spread it around mostly on bullpen and a couple platoon guys.
Yeah they seem to have reached Jerry’s limit.
OVERRATED
If he was overrated, he’d probably have a fairly satisfactory contract already.
From the fans overrating him?
It was questionable draft compensation plus salary demands, now we find out he got hurt. Yikes. Unless a quality team has injured player, I forsee him having to wait until June.
Where do you people come up with June in this scenario. Do you people follow baseball. The draft is in July, which is clearly stated in the article.
No one really buys this nonsense, do they?
But I guess he can’t really say, “I gave my client terrible advice and probably cost him $50 million at a minimum.”
Funny thing is this is super common for Boras. If you are a top tier guy he will get you every last penny. If you are below that level, he will negotiate as if you are top tier anyway and MIGHT get you more money. Or might screw you over. It’s a coin flip and he’s been doing it to players for decades now..
You forgot the “complaining about rules that have been in place for a decade” card he usually pulls. He even tried to manipulate the cba with all his overpaid bums on mlbpa board. Hopefully they continue to stick with the QO system and no international draft.
Conforto batted .232 with 14 home runs with a minus 1 fielding WAR and a 101 OPS+, and he thought those numbers were worthy of over 18.4 mil? He blew it by not accepting the QO and now he has to deal with it.
I know, you know and he knows he’s much better than that but he’s up the creek with the draft pick forfeiture attached.
Nothing shouts nine-figures like those figures, eh?
Players see the market moving efficiently & other players, arguably less deserving, getting big-money deals so they assume it’s going to be stasis for every team. They fail to take into account the innumerable variables that come into play & probably listen to their agents, especially Boras, a bit too much.
Freeman’s agents almost messed up his game & could’ve screwed him completely if LAD would’ve gone any number of different directions. He only had one other offer on the table (Rays) @ 7/$150.
Players sometimes forget that although clubs typically pay for experienced big-league guys, there are usually people left standing when the music stops, even if Boras is that player’s agent. Correa will never get his big payday (that he wanted). He was the top player in FA & one of the top in MLB.
How on Earth do you know that Freeman’s “only other offer” was from the Rays? You don’t, and it’s almost certainly false.
Yes, I do. It was specifically written in an article and cited via interview with Chipper Jones, who was counseling Freeman, his longtime friend, and Freeman’s mentor, on Freeman’s FA choices.
Before accusing, simply ask, I would’ve told you. Yankees couldn’t offer because he was outside of their budget, according to Brian Cashman. He was also outside of the Blue Jays parameters by all reported sources inside & outside the Blue Jays.
@Yankee Clipper Startling, that the Rays would offer Freeman 7/150m. Given how likely it is he’d be done by the end of the deal, that’s 6/150m including about $3.5m deferred each year. Why would the Rays pay this much when they’re good at filling roster slots and getting a couple of wins out them, particularly in one of the easiest spots on the diamond to fill?
He’s a career 124 wRC+ hitter, which matters just a bit more than what he did in his walk year. Trevor Story had a bad walk year too, got a huge payday.
Sarcasm post. San Diego should sign Conforto the superstar next Soto and Trout for 30M a season for seven years and then they will have the monopoly on teams having three players that are vastly overvalued, overpaid, under perform and the Padres will then have three players they can’t trade or get rid of because fans were 100 percent wrong on a player. Perhaps San Diego could add Abrams and a few more top prospects to get rid of Myers, Hosmer, and if Conforto joins the roving circus, it would take four top prospects to move him and his bloated salary. There have been literally hundreds of players over the years that overperformed for years, teams traded them and signed them to huge deals, only to watch them crash and burn, making the contract a joke and unrealistic. We all remember the Chris Davis contracts, the B.J. Ryan contract, the Tulowitzski contract that completely fizzled and had to be bought out at the end because it was so bad. I’m sure every fan has nightmares about players signed because fans go by lifetime stats and ignore what they do lately, which are two different things completely.
With the lousy season last year you would think he would have taken the QO. With Boros his agent he F’d up.
@JLML Strange indeed. Taking the QO, he gets 1/18.4m for a platform year after a career worst season, a chance to rebound, post career-normal numbers, and look to get 4/80m or 5/100m.
What did he think he was going to get in a multiyear deal after his lousy 2021, and was that really likely to beat the scenario above?
Ok boras and I’m super rich too
There is a good chance his baseball season will only involve watching it on tv. He should have accepted the Mets QO
dont get the Boras comments. why would he think his client being injured is a good selling point to teams? i don’t think one team’s inaction tends to domino.
If the injury claims are a lie, then Boros is attempting to plant the idea of Conforto being more desirable than he likely is..
‘There was a lot of interest from several teams, who only became hesitant because of the injury. But now he’s completely healthy!’
It’s just a last ditch effort to get Conforto a decent contract now.
so what? teams arent stupid and onwers probably talk to each other a lot. everyone has a reason for not signing Conforto before and anyone who didnt consider it before can investigate said reasons now.
It’s about controlling the narrative.
“Oh, see the reason he hadn’t been signed isn’t here anymore. It’s TOTALLY not that the ask is greater than what anyone will pay.”
I do like how Boras states that the injury “has slowed down his hunt for a club” implying the inverse relationship exists on the open market and the absence of employment is solely due to inaction by Conforto. He’s slick, but even he can’t get Conforto’s lack of interest unstuck from his person.
Next article:
“Conforto on the hunt for new agent after Boras leaves him over irreconcilable differences…”
Conforto to hire Will Smith as his agent; breaking news!
Canosucks – He might as well, he can’t be any worse than the dumpster fire of an agent he has now.
White Sox I believe go with what they have with Vaughn getting most of the time,if they trade Kimbrel they should get more pitching. The Padres if they can get rid of Hosmer . The only Teams that might spend other than them would be Mets,Nationals, Red Sox, Yankees, Cubs or Texas
The Rangers have already signed two QO free agents. So if they sign Conforto it’s a 4th round pick? Seems like they can sign him to a two year deal (say 2/38 plus reasonable incentives worth another 6) and get better long term value than a 4th round pick, even if they flip him in July or over the winter.
Right idea but too many $$. It’s a buyer’s market for Conforto’s services. Add club options years with reasonable buyouts.
The Cubs can’t trade heyward. San diego can’t trade Hosmer or Myers and they are better than Conforto was last year, so what makes anyone with common sense believe that the Rangers could just flip Conforto in July if he repeats 2021? Wishful thinking I guess and teams trade for good players based on the here and now, not what they did five years earlier. Those players usually end up in Japan, Korea, Australia trying to get their act together again.
Who wants to guarantee Conforto 2/38m? Why would you guarantee a 29 yo coming off a consistently awful season All-Star money?
Hey AJ “please pass” signed a skeptical Padres fan
Same shoulder he dislocated and tore the capsule of in 2017.
As a Mets fan, I hope for the best for Michael. But I’d rather have the pick. I thought there was no chance he’d reject the QO, but thanks! Please sign soon 🙂
P.s. you all heard it from me first!
What a joke
Career .255 hitter recovering from shoulder issue in age 29 season….4 years/$32 mil would be fairly generous, IMO.
When giving stats, you should present more than batting average. I believe many of the people who interact regularly on this site know better.
I see your point and concede that given his OBP, OPS+, WAR and wRC+, he is probably worth 4 years/$40 mil. Good point.
Rays offer 1yr/$10 million with 4 million more in incentives if he plays 140+ games in 2022. Jk, but not really…
I think it’ll take a little more, but I can totally see an incentive-laden deal.
If his market falls apart, then I can see a 1-yr deal. If the Rays make an offer in that scenario, they won’t be the highest bidder. They’ll get outbid by 10% as usual.
Is this Dirt Bike related?
Joe Lewis prepared for his first bout with Max Schmeling by playing golf.
I remember when this guy was expected to be the next Bonds. Talk about disappointment there.
My favorite player who drove me nuts . He finally figured it out in 2020 by consistently going opposite field and then metric reality came back to absolutely crush him in 2021.
Boras did him dirty!!!
Two years, $32 mill. Two club options for $18 mill. with $2 mill. buyouts. Might work for clubs that have already lost picks due to other signings and would only lose a 3rd or 4th rounder.
Didn’t he have a shoulder injury a few years ago? Is this the same shoulder?
He did and it’s the same shoulder.
I heard McDonalds need workers. His shoulder should be fine for flipping patties. If hes lucky Boras can negiogate on his behalf and get him 16$ an hour, a dollar over NY minimum wage
Followed by signing Kuechal and a trade(s), I hope he’s a Tiger soon
Boras may try to sell the Lerners on a two year deal for this guy, like he did with Matt Wieters, but I hope not. The Nats aren’t really set in the OF, but they could be better off with the draft pick and the money saved. After having watched him from afar on the Mets, Conforto seems too injury-prone to me.
Nats have had a confusing offseason. I don’t get why they signed Cruz if they’re rebuilding. That rotation is nowhere near good enough to contend and the offense after those two is iffy, at best. If Soto is intent on testing FA, they ought to just bite the bullet and trade him for an absolute truckload of top prospects. What the White Sox got for Sale would be less than the opening bid for Soto. But adding an OF at this point with the goal of finishing 4 games less behind the Marlins and Phillies seems like a waste of money.
Why not try to improve and win a few games while rebuilding? Why not sign Cruz? Losing isn’t a necessary part of looking to the future.
Because it’s a waste of money and likely costs them a draft slot (though not as likely with the new lottery). Only real reason to do it is to trade him at the deadline, but if people aren’t beating down the door for him now, what kind of worth will he have then?
I’d guess it’s to both protect Soto and retain/increase his value and to be a deadline piece for a contender with injuries.
96% sure they’ll be in full tank after the deadline
A waste of money? You win more games. Winning more should ALWAYS be the goal. Losing for the draft is asinine, it’s not how the MLB draft works. Positioning isn’t important the way it is in the NBA or NFL. By the way, did I mention that WINNING games is the goal? Give the fans a season that’s a bit more entertaining. Better to lose 85 games than to lose 90. (Plus I think the Nats will be better than most expect.)
Consider how the Cubs, Astros, White Sox, and Tigers have built their teams: trade away talent for top prospects, suck for a few years to get a better draft slot, then sign FA’s when they turn the corner.
I’ll grant that baseball draft is more of a crapshoot than other sports, but there’s still significant value in being able to pick a guy like Torkelson rather than, well, does anyone remember the name of the #16 overall pick from that year?
And you’re wrong: winning games isn’t the goal. Winning titles is. And before you start with, “But you have to win games to get to the playoffs!” the truth is that getting there with an underwhelming team just leads to early exits. Building a true contender either takes loads of money (like the late 90’s Yankees), loads of brains (like the Rays), or rebuilds. Teams like the Guardians that don’t rebuild rarely contend, either. If you want to be happy that your team won 77 games instead of 72, that’s your business. I’d rather mine was going for the title.
Losing more games now DOES NOT help you win in the future! That’s the point you are missing.
But it really does. That’s the point you are missing. Not every team drafts and develops as well as the Dodgers and Rays. For the rest of the league, they have a better chance of getting it right if they have access to the top prospects rather than mid-first-rounders.
It’s no guarantee that you pick correctly or that you develop the prospect well, but there’s one undeniable fact: the Cubs had no chance whatsoever at getting Torkelson because he was already taken by the time they picked. Why? Because the Tigers lost more games. If he hits like many people think he will, then yes, losing more games helped them win in the future.
You are making clear associations between things where in fact enormous variables exist. The benefit of a higher draft pick in baseball is insignificant and can be countered by good planning. A poorly run organization is not going to succeed because they drafted 3rd instead of 10th. You are creating myths, or more accurately, repeating them.
Well if people some one to go and watch , maybe later trade and you never know
I think a more plausible explanation is that his agent miscalculated the market and is now left searching for excuses.
If he can’t throw and only hit…. come DH for the jays on rebuild value year… hitting in 2 spot ahead of Vladdy will do for him what it did for Semien if his hitting not affected
That does sound good if I was the player
No thanks. Vladdy needs 30 games a year at DH, Springer probably needs 20+ to stay healthy, Teo and Gurriel and Bo will need some DH days, and Kirk and/or Bird can fill the remaining hundred games a lot cheaper without costing a draft pick.
The Jays, Indians, Rangers, Rays, and Royals could use his services. But he’s not worth a multi year contract. He needs to do a one year deal to establish himself again.
He’s not waiting until July 17—he won’t make up the lost salary. But he might have to wait at least another month to see if an injury creates an opening. Boras probably was shooting for the moon, and Conforto isn’t worth the moon. The injury complicates things even more–do you want to give up a draft pick plus pay a high salary for a guy who may not be at 100%?
Yanks will sign him for 7 years, 153MM.
No, that’s more like the Rockies. Overpaying for old or damaged goods.
If his medicals check out, Preller should offer an incentive-heavy one-year deal. Maybe $12 mill with incentives that would put him near QO level if he reaches certain PA thresholds. Low risk, potential decent reward.
Playoff Teams may actually hold out and wait until July if he’s still out there and assess their rosters. Teams on the fringe may jump in now if the price is right and his shoulder isn’t a real concern. Bottom feeders probably don’t want him because of the lost draft picks. Conforto should not have tested the market and was poorly advised but I hope he returns soon. I would love if the Yanks signed him in July.
I think his price tag will come down enough that he signs before then. The QO pick is worth only so much, it’s not like it’s a top-10 pick. My guess is he signs for around $13-$15M a week from now, but that depends on how the physical looks.
This guy will win a batting title some day
Is this some kind of weird meme?
He’s not a high average type of guy
… if he signs in Korea.
2015 called. It wants its hot takes back.
No wonder Dipoto didnt go after him.
1 year deal with Toronto makes so much sense here….
I’m a little surprised Conforto has retained Boras. Not taking the QO was a big mistake, especially coming off the worst year of his career. Now it seems like he’ll have to settle for a one-year make-good deal for less than the QO, in part because of the draft pick compensation and in part because his worth just isn’t as high. He was pretty good in August and September, but still not the walk year he’d envisioned.
As a White Sox fan, I hope the Guardians (should have been Spiders) sign him. Their fans deserve a better offseason than they’ve gotten.
Cherrypick the start date and he was .275/.372/.461/.833 from August 4–October 3, but until then his line was a dismal .197/.324/.325/.648. It’s hard to be persuasive in just two months when you were awful until then, particularly when you’re already 29 as of the start of the new season.
You’d figure something like 2/30m would be easy enough to come by, maybe 2/25m given the draft pick attached to him, but why spend more than that on a guy who’s a complete guess, never mind the possibility that his shoulder injury resurfaced a year before Boras acknowledges and killed his power for the first 2/3 of 2021, then occurred for the third time in January of 2022?
Particularly after the Kumar Rocker fiasco, who trusts Boras here?
Sounds like complete BS. If he is healthy, he can simply sign, with no concerns about taking a physical. It sounds a bit like Boras is setting up an excuse to tell Conforto why no one is signing him.
I think this will be a July signing, which isn’t the end of the world. He needs to have two good months to re-establish his value. There will be at least a couple of teams that require an additional RF/DH type. And Conforto will like be more cost-effective than a trade for a similar quality player.
If I was the player I would be mad this came out ..
I guess since the pick and the money is why he’s still available.
There is almost zero chance they cut off negotiations until this “injury” was 100 percent. This is a face saving leak for boras and Conforto when he takes a a crappy deal or isn’t signed until July
Kicking himself for turning down the Mets’ QO.
He’a brittle. Sign him for the MLB minimum.
Conforto is a BUM who stupidly turned down QO and previous big offer.
Boras should go into politics but I guess lame excuses are the sign of the times.
I heard it from a very good source that Conforto was cleaning Borat’s toilet and the brush slipped and he hurt his shoulder!
Any team that signs him for more than the league minimum should fire their GM. BTW I am not calling for a GM regime change and the checks in the mail.
I also heard that Conforto has hired Will Smith to negotiate for him!
Clearly this is a Boras spin.
Everything Boras says to the media is spin. He’s good at getting his guys big-money deals most of the time (really crapped the bed here, though), but I don’t know how many people take anything he says in front of a microphone seriously.
Thank God he declined the QO. Mets are a better team without him. That .182 average with RISP isn’t worth a spot in the lineup.
PoloGrounds62 Spot on Dude… Clutch he was NOT!
Still waiting for the one credible study showing ‘clutch’ exists. If you’re not posting one, stop talking about it.
Hey Jack, clutch is putting up an excellent performance in your, self-inflicted, walk year.
Lol, using RISP to judge a player. Do you believe in astrology too?
He might not be as much of question mark as he seems at first glance. He had covid just before spring training started and that could have affected how much work he got in and contributed to an early-season slump. Even if that wasn’t the case he did suffer an injury early in the year that cost him a bunch of time. That would probably have messed up his timing when he came back; as it’s probably going to take a little while to get the rust off.
He definitely got stronger as the season went on and by the second half he seemed to be almost back to his old self as he hit 11 of his 14 home runs in the second half to go with a .792 OPS. That’s pretty close to his career averages if you prorated the second half over a full season.
In July he hit 171/.292/.354/.645. Conforto didn’t have a good second half, he had an good final third.
The dog ate my homework.