3 monster right field solutions for the 2022 KC Royals

The KC Royals could pick up an established veteran National League right fielder.

The Royals got their first look at Michael Conforto during the 2015 World Series. Conforto, then a rookie, hit .333 with a 1.046 OPS for the Mets, and tagged Danny Duffy and Chris Young for homers in Game 4.

Since then, he’s hit .254 with a .358 OBP and 123 homers in six seasons, and owns a career .255/.356/.468 line with 132 home runs. A hamstring issue limited his playing time last season; he hit only .232 but still clubbed 14 homers in 125 games. He posted a .322 average and .412 OBP in the pandemic-truncated 2020 season, and his nine homers extrapolates to 24.3 for a full campaign.

Conforto may not perennially hit for high average, but he’d add a lefty bat to the Kansas City lineup. And his career .356 OBP proves he finds ways to get on base. A right fielder most of the time, Conforto is above average defensively.

Conforto is still young—he turns 29 in March—and made $12.25 million last season via a one-year contract that enabled him and the Mets to sidestep the final year of his arbitration eligibility. He rejected New York’s $18.4 million Qualifying Offer, but that doesn’t mean he’ll require much more AAV than that to sign with a new club.