3 monster right field solutions for the 2022 KC Royals
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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.