New York Mets Nixing Michael Conforto At First Base

The New York Mets have a need at first base with Lucas Duda sidelined, but Michael Conforto will no longer be considered a candidate to help out.

The New York Mets have a huge hole to fill at first base with Lucas Duda suffering a stress fracture in his back. Duda will be sidelined at least 4-6 weeks, and the Mets will have to patch things together there until he returns.

The in-house options are currently underwhelming, as Eric Campbell and Wilmer Flores are expected to get the first crack at replacing him. Ty Kelly could also receive a shot, as he was called up from Triple-A Las Vegas to replace the injured Duda.

While no Mets fan will get overly excited at that trio, one idea that definitely caught their attention was moving Michael Conforto to first base. Earlier in the week it was reported that Conforto would begin taking ground balls in preparation to help the Mets out at first base down the line. If Conforto played first base, it would enable the Mets to play their best lineup, with Juan Lagares taking over an outfield spot.

But, the Conforto to first base experiment looks like it will be ending pretty much before it got off the ground. Manager Terry Collins was straight forward with his answer on Friday night before the Mets took the field against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

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"“He is not a first baseman. We are not here to take a kid who has never played first base at the major league level, in a situation where we’re expected to win a lot, and put an inexperienced guy in a tough position. As I’ve tried to gingerly say it, this isn’t high school where you put the fat kid over at first. This is an athletic position that they’re in a lot of action. There’s a lot of things going on. Right now Michael has got a lot on his plate. I don’t need to add more to it.”"

Not only has Conforto not played first base at the major league level, he has never done it previously. He had worked out at first base a couple of times during his time at Oregon State, but he never appeared in a game at the position. He never appeared at first base in the minor leagues either, so he was essentially starting over from scratch at first base.

It would have been a difficult transition for Conforto to make moving from the outfield to the infield, especially since he has never done it before. As Collins states, Conforto has enough on his plate already being the everyday left fielder for the Mets for the first time.

While having Conforto at first base would have looked good on paper, as the Mets lineup would have been stronger, there is no guarantee it would have worked on the field. With no experience at the position, it could have been a disaster and stunted his overall growth.

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The Mets will just have to make it work with other players until Duda returns, as Conforto will not be helping out at first base. A backup first baseman was one thing the Mets failed to address during the offseason, and now it is coming back to haunt them.

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