Michael Conforto isn’t the new Teoscar Hernández yet.
But as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts discussed Conforto last week, he couldn’t help but note the similarities between the two veteran outfielders.
Last year, of course, the Dodgers struck gold when they signed Hernández to a one-year, $23.5-million contract. It started a low-risk flier, intended to fill a short-term need in the Dodgers’ lineup and give Hernández a chance to rebuild his stock after his free-agent market didn’t develop as he hoped.
It turned into a shrewd acquisition that helped key the team’s run to the World Series, with Hernández emerging as an important hitter in the middle of the lineup — he batted .272 with a career-high 33 home runs, and eventually became the team’s clean-up hitter — the Dodgers re-signed him to a lucrative three-year, $66-million contract this winter.
In Conforto, the team is hopeful of getting comparable returns again.
Just like Hernández last year, Conforto enters 2025 at a crossroads point in his career, with the former All-Star slugger coming off a couple underwhelming seasons with the San Francisco Giants that left him looking for a rebound opportunity in free agency this winter.
And, just like Hernández, Conforto picked the Dodgers with the goal of reigniting his production offensively, hopeful their hitting staff and player development department could unlock the kind of numbers he posted in his peak years with the New York Mets, when he hit 97 home runs and had an .864 OPS from 2017 (when he earned his lone All-Star selection) to 2020.
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“He’s going to be one of my picks to click this year, as far as a guy that I think is going to really take a step forward,” Roberts said of Conforto, who signed a one-year, $17-million deal with the Dodgers to be their primary left fielder. “Not saying he’s Teo of ’24, but that’s kind of the light I see him in.”
Once seen as a rising star in the sport, as a former first-round draft pick with a powerful left-handed swing, Conforto’s ascent has stalled over the last four seasons.
After posting career highs in batting average (.322) and OPS (.927) during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, Conforto slumped through much of 2021, batting 90 points lower (.232) while missing more than a month that summer because of a hamstring injury.
Things got worse the following offseason. After turning down a qualifying offer from the Mets and entering the free-agent market for the first time, Conforto injured his shoulder while training during MLB’s lockout, leading to a surgery that sidelined him for all of the 2022 season.
In January 2023, Conforto signed a two-year, $36-million deal with the Giants. But, while battling lingering effects from his procedure and the pitcher-friendly conditions of playing in Oracle Park, his old levels of production never fully returned, leading to a .238 batting average and just 35 home runs combined over the last two years.
“Missing a year of baseball, it’s not an easy thing to do,” Conforto said last week. “I think it just took me a while to feel like myself and kind of get the at-bats under my belt to get to the point that we’re at now. It’s going to be a work in progress continuously.”
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This spring, Conforto’s work with Dodgers coaches has begun yielding encouraging results.
After starting Cactus League play with only one hit in 12 at-bats, the 32-year-old is six for 11, including three doubles and a long home run to right field in Friday night’s 6-4 win over the Seattle Mariners.
He has displayed his trademark control of the strike zone (his career 11.9% walk rate is well above league average) and, as Roberts put it, “is covering a lot of pitches” over different parts of the plate.
He is making harder contact when connecting with the ball, too, confident he is getting closer to the pre-injury version of his swing.
“They didn’t necessarily want me to change from what I’ve done well in the past,” Conforto said of the swing changes he and Dodgers coaches have worked on in camp. “It was more about getting back to where I was in the middle of my career … loading right and having good timing and staying through the middle of the field. That’s really the biggest thing.”
A change of scenery figures to benefit Conforto.
Last year, Conforto’s numbers on the road (.253 average, .852 OPS) dwarfed what he posted at cold, windy Oracle Park (.216 average, .632 OPS). When the Dodgers signed him this offseason, it was one of the first factors president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman cited in the team’s evaluation, noting they had previously expressed interest in Conforto at last season’s trade deadline.
“It’s not often for a guy [to be] both a floor-raiser with ceiling,” Friedman said then. “There’s a real professional at-bat in there, but also with some upside.”
It was similar thinking, after all, that led the Dodgers last offseason to take a gamble on Hernández, who was also coming from a pitcher-friendly ballpark in Seattle. That partnership helped the club win a championship. In Conforto, the team sees someone who could be crucial in their attempt to repeat.
“I’ve been welcomed into a pretty elite group of really confident players, guys who’ve done a lot of things in their careers and are great leaders,” Conforto said. “There’s a culture of success around here. That’s a hard thing to build. But they’ve definitely built it here.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
