Michael Conforto Drawing Heavy Interest, Looking For Long-Term Deal In Free Agency

After Michael Conforto rejected the Mets' one-year, $18.4 million qualifying offer earlier in the week, his agent Scott Boras says he's already drawing a ton of interest from teams at annual GM meetings in Carlsbad, California.

“Conforto has kind of been the King of Diamonds, Little League World Series, College World Series and as a Met he’s been an All-Star, a pennant winner, he was huge in the World Series,” Boras said at GM meetings on Wednesday. 

“Basically he has become the King of Queens. In free agency now he’s kind of like the ace of many GMs’ hearts and certainly we have seen from the interest level that everybody is understanding of the COVID issue and what he had the first few months of the season and I think everybody understands who really Michael is and what he means both in leadership to teams, and frankly the interest level has been extraordinary.”

Boras expects Conforto to sign a long-term deal with someone this winter, despite enduring a down campaign in 2021, where he slashed .232/.344/.384 with 14 home runs and 55 RBIs in 125 games.

“Michael Conforto is a National League East beast,” Boras said. “He hits [velocity] better than most and he’s a great defender. There are no teams coming to me suggesting that Michael is not going to get probably similar to what he would have gotten after the 2020 season."

The super agent went onto blame lingering COVID-19 effects, which Conforto contracted prior to spring training, for his poor season last year as well.

"They all know who he is and they all know what happened to him early in 2021," said Boras. "It was kind of unrelated to his ability.”

Although he rejected the Mets' qualifying offer, Boras says Conforto is still open to speaking with the only organization he has ever been with in the majors. 

"When players become free agents, they know where they’ve been," Boras said. "They’re getting an opportunity to understand where they can go. And then they have to make that decision.

"I don’t know how you register his intent. He’s open to obviously listening to the Mets and a number of other teams. He has a lot of meetings ahead of him. He really does."

Conforto helped the Mets reach the World Series during his rookie season in 2015. He also made the 2017 All-Star team and is seventh on the Mets' all-time home run list with 132 long balls in his career. 

And Boras is confident that his client will cash-in this offseason due to his impressive track record.

If Conforto should sign elsewhere, the Mets would receive a compensatory draft pick from the 28-year-old's new team.

Another Try For Rocker

The Mets drafted ex-Vanderbilt pitcher Kumar Rocker in the first-round of the MLB Draft in June, but did not sign him due to health concerns.

Now, Boras confirmed that his client will re-enter the draft in 2022. 

"Kumar Rocker is looking great, throwing great," he said. "We think somebody is going to be very, very lucky — and someone may be very, very unlucky — as to how things turn out with Kumar Rocker."

Rocker was selected by the Mets with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2021 draft, which was seen as a steal considering he was once projected to be a No. 1 overall choice.

However, the Mets didn't like what they saw in his post-draft physical which led to their decision to not sign him. 

Since a contract agreement could not be reached, the Mets were handed an extra draft pick at No. 11 overall in 2022.