Michael Conforto Is Back To Mashing Righties

Heading into Spring Training, the Chicago Cubs lacked a clear-cut outfield option off the bench. The team struggled to get any production from non-starters last season. They had guys like Vidal Bruján and Willi Castro cover a fair chunk of innings, though each posted a sub-50 wRC+ and were worth negative fWAR.

Neither of those guys entered camp with the Cubs, with the team instead holding a bit of a competition. The competition initially centered around Dylan Carlson and Chas McCormick battling for the final roster spot before Michael Conforto entered the mix on a minor league deal.

He ended up breaking camp with the big-league squad and saw at-bats right away due to an injury to Seiya Suzuki. Since then, he has earned more consistent playing time as one of the Cubs’ hottest bats early in the season. After a rough 2025 season, Conforto looks like he’s found himself, getting back to what he does best: own right-handed pitching.

All stats updated before play on May 15.

Back to Being Himself

Historically, Conforto has crushed right-handed pitching. From when he debuted with the Mets in 2015 to the end of 2024, he slashed .257/.359/.479 with a 128 wRC+ against righties. Then in 2025, he joined the Dodgers, where for the first time in his career he really struggled against them.

With L.A. last season, he batted just .190, struck out at a near 25% clip, and had a 76 wRC+ against righties. On the surface, this performance looks pretty brutal, however advanced numbers suggest he ran into some bad luck.

While expected stats don’t tell the whole story, other metrics also support the case of his performance being unlucky.

Beginning by looking at his quality of contact, he had a 45.1% hard-hit rate and 90.4 mph average exit velocity, both above league average. To that, you might assume he hit too many balls on the ground. That assumption would be incorrect, as his ground-ball rate against right handers was just 0.6% over the league average.

All in all, his down season in 2025 wasn’t as bad as it may have seemed. So far this season, that bad luck has evened out. Conforto has been a key piece for the Cubs, and his performance against righties is right back to how it has been in the past.

Early Impact

Conforto wasted no time making his presence felt this season. So far, all but one of his plate appearances have come against right-handers, really just posing as a matchup nightmare for opposing teams.

Among players with at least 50 plate appearances against righties, Conforto’s 198 wRC+ is tied for the fourth highest in baseball. Overall against them, he is slashing .340/.448/.617 with a pair of home runs and eight runs driven in.

He is ripping the cover off the baseball with a 52.9% hard-hit rate and 95.4 mph average exit velocity that ranks fifth in baseball among players with at least 25 batted balls.

The quality of contact he has been generating is impressive as is, but he’s also paired it with ideal launch angles. His 29.4% line drive rate is well above his career mark, and he’s also running a 47.1% launch-angle sweet-spot rate which is sixth in the league.

This all combines to show that he has earned every bit of his production thus far. While it’s unlikely that he maintains an OPS over 1.000 throughout the entire season, the underlying metrics suggest his success has been very real.

He is consistently making quality contact at ideal launch angles, while walking at a high rate and keeping strikeouts at a manageable level. That combination has allowed him to avoid the inconsistency that plagued him during stretches of 2025 with the Dodgers.

Settling Into His Role

Beyond just the raw production, Conforto has also given the Cubs something they badly lacked a season ago: a dependable left-handed bench bat.

Chicago received essentially negative value from its reserve outfielders in 2025, particularly against right-handed pitching. Conforto has quickly changed that equation.

His role has grown steadily over the month and a half of the season. Rather than simply filling in here and there, Conforto has forced his way into more consistent at-bats by constantly punishing right-handers.

For manager Craig Counsell, that creates valuable flexibility when constructing lineups and playing the matchup game in later innings. Coming through in later innings as a pinch-hitter has been a huge strength of his.

Among hitters with at least 10 pinch-hit plate appearances this season, Conforto ranks second with a 202 wRC+.

Conforto has also already delivered in several key moments, with the biggest of them being a pinch-hit walk-off home run against the Reds:

It remains to be seen whether Conforto can sustain this level of production over the course of a full season. Still, the early signs are undeniably encouraging, and he’s been a spark for one of the best offenses to open the season.

This quality of contact is there, expected metrics support the results, and the Cubs are finally getting meaningful production from a role that was a major weakness just one season ago.