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The White Sox have some interest in the free agent outfielder Michael Conforto<\/strong>according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Conforto was with the Dodgers through 2025 but did not appear likely to return there even before Los Angeles made their surprise deal with. Kyle Tucker<\/strong> last night.<\/p>\n Conforto, 33 in March, is coming off a few down years. His best game was with the Mets early in his career. By the end of the 2020 season, he had 623 games under his belt, with a slash line of .259\/.358\/.484 and a 128 wRC+. He hit 30ish home runs from 2017 to 2019 and hit nine over the fence in the shortened 2020 season.<\/p>\n He has never been at that level since. His production struggled in 2021, with just 14 home runs and a total offense close to league average. Shoulder surgery ended his 2022 season. He then signed a two-year contract with the Giants. In 2023, he was again among the league average, with 15 home runs for the year.<\/p>\n The second year of that deal was less encouraging. Conforto hit 20 home runs and slashed .237\/.309\/.450. That streak was 12% better than league average in wRC+ rating. That wasn’t his first year with the Mets but it was his best showing at the time.<\/p>\n It was also possible to open your eyes and see the potential for more. His first half was marred by a hamstring strain and he never seemed to get into the groove. He stayed healthy in the second half and caught fire, with a .272\/.337\/.543 line and a 143 wRC+ in his final 169 plate appearances.<\/p>\n The Dodgers decided to bet on that hot streak, signing Conforto to a one-year, $17MM deal with a backlog. That didn’t work. Conforto slashed .199\/.305\/.333 on the year with an 83 wRC+. The Dodgers did not carry him on the roster going into the postseason.<\/p>\n After that down season, his earning potential should be lower than last year. So you’ll make sense of the White Sox as a buy-low option with some upside. He’s only occasionally shown the opposite recently but even his sub-par 2025 season had some theoretical reasons for optimism.<\/p>\n His 11.5% walk rate last year was quite strong. His strikeout rate of 24.9% is very high but typical for him. His .247 batting average on balls in play was pretty low, so he may have had a bad year. His Statcast data wasn’t the best but it wasn’t bad either. His bat speed was in the 77th percentile of the majors. His barrel rate was 56, his strikeout rate was 53 and his average exit velocity was 48.<\/p>\n The Sox are deep in a rebuild and won’t be fighting anytime soon. They could be one of the most suitable clubs to take a flier from Conforto and hope to return to form, as a rival club could opt for a player with an impressive recent record. If he has a solid first half, he could be traded at the trade deadline for a prospect or two.<\/p>\n The Chicago Outfield is currently a project to include Luis Robert Jr.<\/strong> again Andrew Benintendi<\/strong> in two places. These two themselves will be sold this year. They can also stand to spend some time in the designated hitting area, given their injury history.<\/p>\n Brooks Baldwin<\/strong>, Tristan Peters<\/strong>, Derek Hill<\/strong>, Everson Pereira<\/strong> and other young players should be in the mix during outdoor play. Baldwin and Peters still have options and could be sent to the minors. Hill and Pereira have no choice but to be the type of fringe players on the roster that can clear waivers and be targeted in the minors as random depth.<\/p>\n With Tucker signed, the free agent market is on Cody Bellinger<\/strong> at the top and there is a noticeable gap in other options. Harrison Bader<\/strong> Arguably the second best option, with guys like Conforto, Mike Tauchman<\/strong>, Austin Hays<\/strong>, Miguel Andujar<\/strong> and others who form the next stage. Max Kepler<\/strong> he would have been in this collection somewhere but he just got an 80 game PED suspension. That cuts his appeal in two because he will miss the first half of the season and then be ineligible for the postseason.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The White Sox have some interest in the free agent outfielder Michael Confortoaccording to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Conforto was with the Dodgers through 2025 but did not appear likely to return there even before Los Angeles made their surprise deal with. Kyle Tucker last night. Conforto, 33 in March, is coming …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2255,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253\/revisions\/2255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}