Opening Day is just a week away, and Michael Conforto still doesn’t have a baseball team to call his own.
But his agent Scott Boras offered some clarity as to why that might be the case.
Boras told the New York Post that the former Mets outfielder injured his shoulder while diving for a ball during a defensive drill back in January, and was waiting to get his right shoulder back to 100 percent before resuming contract talks with prospective teams.
Conforto, arguably the top free agent left unsigned, declined the Mets’ qualifying offer of $18.4 million prior to the lockout, hoping that his career resume would hold more weight than his struggles last season when seeking a long-term deal. But that injury in January apparently set back his free agent interest, though Boras told The Post that Conforto is back and healthy from the shoulder strain, and his market is heating up.
“There is a great deal of interest in this guy,” Boras told The Post. “We are really just starting the process now that he is swinging normal…He wanted to have his normal swing plane [before negotiations]. Now, he is able to illustrate that with impressive workouts.”
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