The Cubs are signing outfielder Michael Conforto, according to a report from Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The terms of the deal are not yet known. The Cubs have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding 40-man move if Conforto is being added on a major league deal, but that can be easily accomplished by transferring right-hander Shelby Miller to the 60-day injured list.
Conforto, 33 next month, is a veteran of ten MLB seasons at this point. A former top ten pick in the draft and top 100 prospect, Conforto was an All-Star in 2017 and hit .259/.358/.484 (128 wRC+) through his first six seasons in the majors. Things took a turn for the veteran from there, however. His 2021 season was only pedestrian (104 wRC+), and his 2022 campaign was lost to shoulder surgery. Since returning, he’s stayed at that roughly league average level overall. He’s hit .225/.316/.390 with a 98 wRC+ across three seasons with the Giants and Dodgers, but last year in L.A. was the worst season of his career to this point.
In 138 games for the Dodgers, Conforto hit just .199/.3o5/.333 with a wRC+ of 83. He was well below replacement level according to both Fangraphs and Baseball Reference in terms of WAR, he posted the weakest power production (.138 ISO) of his career, and his strikeout rate jumped to 24.9% for the first time since 2018. It was a brutal season overall, and things got bad enough that Conforto wound up being left off L.A.’s playoff rosters entirely during the World Series run. After returning to free agency this offseason, Conforto found minimal interest across the league until the calendar had already flipped to 2026. As Spring Training drew near, teams like the White Sox and Astros expressed interest in Conforto’s services, but the Cubs had not been connected to him before today’s news.
More to come.