Rookies Michael Conforto, Stephen Matz give Mets bright future
NEW YORK — In a dank dugout tunnel of a Class AA ballpark back in late July, Mets vice president and farm director Paul DePodesta said of Binghamton’s left fielder Michael Conforto, “He’s not overwhelmed by much.”
At the time Conforto was a 22-year-old of increasing popularity. The big league club’s offensive struggles had given rise to the burgeoning #FreeConforto movement, a social media push for New York to promote its top offensive prospect.
DePodesta noted the left-handed hitter’s “advanced approach” and ability to hit lefty and righty pitchers alike but shared the sentiment espoused by Binghamton manager Pedro Lopez, who said it was a “little unfair” to promote Conforto “expecting him basically to carry the team,” as was the clamoring of fans.
Now, three months later and on the heels of a recent 0-for-20 postseason slump, Conforto smashed two home runs in Saturday’s World Series Game 4 against the Kansas City Royals, becoming only the second Met to hit two in the same World Series game since Gary Carter in 1986.
As the Mets entered a possible elimination Game 5 on Sunday night, they faced long odds to come back — only 15% of clubs down 3-1 do so — but could feel confident their rookie class of Conforto and starters Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz would prop open their window of contention for years.
“You kind of forget about where you came from, and you’ve got to act the part,” Conforto said. “You’ve got to be a big leaguer.”
Matz, 24, allowed two runs on five innings with five strikeouts and no walks in Game 4, putting New York in a position to win a night after Syndergaard, 22, earned the club’s first series win with six innings of three-run ball in Game 3.
“I wanta cry thinking about all he put in when he was here,” his college coach, Oregon State’s Pat Casey, wrote in a text message. He has touted his former two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year as a future big league “superstar.”
None of the three appeared in the majors before May. In Conforto’s 56 games, he batted .270 with nine home runs and a .841 on-base-plus-slugging that, when contextualized for league and ballpark, was 32% better than the average hitter and second only to Yoenis Cespedes on the team. Cespedes was acquired a week after Conforto's promotion, thereby providing some healthy shade for the rookie to succeed with less pressure.
The 24-year-old left-handed Matz threw so few regular season innings — 35 2/3 with a 2.27 ERA — that he retains his rookie eligibility in 2016.
“It’s been incredible to watch these guys perform at this level on this stage,” DePodesta wrote. “The entire organization is very proud of these young players.”
In Conforto’s first postseason at bat, he crushed a home run off possible NL Cy Young winner Zack Greinke of the Los Angeles Dodgers but then succumbed to an 0-for-20 slump, a skid snapped with an infield single in Friday’s Game 3.
Manager Terry Collins stuck with Conforto in his lineup, however. Before Game 3, Collins said, “This guy has had very good at-bats, and has nothing to show for it.”
The patience paid dividends with Conforto’s Game 4 output — a visible reminder sat above his locker after the game: the second home run ball, retrieved from the bullpen area. Those home runs, incidentally, left his bat at 107 and 101 mph.
Matz, meanwhile, is a Long Island native who stayed with his parents the night before his start, handed out Halloween candy to children that morning and then drove a familiar one-hour route down the Long Island Expressway to the ballpark.
“It’s an unbelievable experience to be able to drive from the home that I grew up in to come to the ballpark,” he said.
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