Michael Conforto

Early life

Back in 2004, Michael Conforto played in the Little League World Series for the Northwest Region. He went to Redmond High School in Washington, where he made the honor roll.

On the field, he played shortstop in baseball and both quarterback and safety in football, earning second-team All-State honors for football. His high school batting averages climbed from .310 as a sophomore to .361 as a junior (All-State) and .400 as a senior (All-State and All-League). Colleges like Oregon State offered him baseball scholarships.

College career

Michael Conforto made an immediate impact as a freshman at Oregon State in 2012, posting a .349 average with a .437 on-base percentage and a .601 slugging percentage. He tied for the conference lead with 13 home runs and set a school single-season record with 76 RBIs, which also led the Pac-12. That year he was named both the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Freshman Hitter of the Year and the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, and he spent the summer with the USA Baseball collegiate national team.

As a sophomore in 2013, he hit .328 with a .447 on-base and .526 slugging, adding 11 home runs and 47 RBIs. He helped Oregon State reach the College World Series, where he went 7-for-16 and earned All-Tournament honors. He was voted Pac-12 Player of the Year and a first-team All-American by the American Baseball Coaches Association, and again played for the collegiate national team that summer. Before his junior season, Sporting News named him the preseason College Baseball Player of the Year.

In 2014, he hit .345 with a .504 on-base and .547 slugging, drove in 56 runs, and walked 55 times. He repeated as Pac-12 Player of the Year and was a finalist for both the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy.

Professional career

The New York Mets made Michael Conforto the 10th overall pick in the first round of the 2014 MLB draft. He signed on July 11, 2014, for a signing bonus of $2,970,800 and began his professional career with the Brooklyn Cyclones of the Class A-Short Season New York–Penn League, where he posted a .331/.403/.448 batting line. In 2015, Conforto started with the St. Lucie Mets of the Class A-Advanced Florida State League, hitting .283/.350/.462 before moving up to the Binghamton Mets of the Class AA Eastern League, where he batted .312/.396/.503.

On July 12, 2015, he started in left field for the U.S. team at the All-Star Futures Game, recording two hits and an assist. He was named an FSL Mid-Season All Star and made the 2015 Topps Rookie All-Star team. The following year, with Triple-A Las Vegas in the Pacific Coast League, he hit .422/.483/.727 with nine home runs. The Mets called him up to the majors on July 24, 2015, and he debuted that same day, driving in his first run on a groundout.

The next day, he collected his first major league hit as part of a four-hit game. His first big league home run came on August 3 off Miami’s Tom Koehler. Conforto finished the 2015 season with a .270/.335/.506 slash line, nine home runs, and 26 RBIs over 56 games. The Mets won the National League pennant that year, making Conforto the third player ever to appear in the Little League World Series, College World Series, and Major League World Series.

In Game 4 of the 2015 World Series, he hit two home runs, becoming the first rookie to do so in a World Series game since Andruw Jones in 1996.

Did You Know?

• Conforto's mother, Tracie Conforto (née Ruiz), is a three-time Olympic medalist in synchronized swimming.
• His father, Mike, played inside linebacker at Penn State.
• Conforto resides in Scottsdale, Arizona, during the offseason.