ATLANTA — If the numbers didn’t say enough, Michael Conforto’s body language and his eyes told the story well enough for Mets manager Terry Collins.
“It was after his second at-bat [Saturday]. He came off the field, and I was looking at him. I could see he reached a state of mental confusion,” Collins said. “Just looking at his eyes, you could almost see him shaking his head, saying, ‘What the heck is going on?’?”
So the Mets said enough. They know Conforto is far more than the player who has hit .146 since May 1. Conforto is the building block who hit .365 in April, who starred last season and hit two World Series homers.
On Saturday, the Mets sent Conforto down to Triple-A Las Vegas and called up another lefty hitter, Brandon Nimmo, the Mets’ first-round pick (No. 13 overall) in the 2011 draft.
“There’s definitely going to be some positives. I get to go and work on my craft,” said Conforto, who stayed around in the Mets’ clubhouse at Turner Field in order to address the media. Collins noted a lot of players “would have high-tailed” it out of the ball park.
Conforto, whose problems included “confidence” at the plate, according to Collins, showed remarkable confidence he will be back and again be the player who captivated New York last season.
“I just want to get that approach back,” said Conforto, who, like Collins, would not blame an achy wrist for his struggles. “Using the whole field, being able to see the ball a little bit — it’ll be good to get away from everything I’m facing right now to try to simplify things and just work on getting back to who I know I am at the plate.
“It’s been very tough. It’s upsetting not having the success I know I can have,” added Conforto, who was hitting .222 (48-for-216) with 10 homers and 30 RBIs in 65 games for the Mets this season. “Having the success in April, showing who I am as a player, it’s disappointing not to be able to show that. … One thing I do know: I’ll be back doing what I did in April, what I did last year. I’m very confident in that.”
One man’s demotion is another man’s opportunity, and Nimmo was thrilled by his call-up. He is hitting .328 with 16 doubles, seven triples, five homers and 37 RBIs with Las Vegas and is hitting .388 in 21 June games.
“It took a long time for it to set in. I was in shock,” said Nimmo, who is expected to play Sunday. Collins said he prefers him in left with Yoenis Cespedes in center.
“I didn’t really know how to feel because it’s something I’ve been working for for a long time, something I always prayed about, something I always dreamed about,” Nimmo said. “It seemed like something I was always reaching for, and to finally be here, it’s something I’m no longer reaching for. It’s a childhood dream that has come to fruition. It’s hard to put into words.”
Nimmo credited the staff in Las Vegas, including manager Wally Backman, who gave him the good news, for helping him achieve what he strove for: consistency.
“Wally told me he’s always been the prototypical work-the-count guy,” Collins said. “He’s gotten to be a little more aggressive in the counts, so he’s not behind in the counts all the time, and that made a huge difference.”
Nimmo agreed the aggressiveness led to consistency.
“It was repetitive efforts of becoming more consistent in the game,” Nimmo said. “That’s what I preached since the beginning, becoming more consistent, and I think that happened over the past two months.”
The move was part of a day that included the Mets reuniting with Jose Reyes, a signing that was not connected with the Conforto maneuver.
“We got together and talked about Michael [roughly] 10 days ago,” said general manager Sandy Alderson, who indicated a recent stretch of right-handed pitchers was seen as an opportunity for Conforto to bust out of his slump that saw him chasing too many bad pitches.
“It really hasn’t happened,” Alderson said of the break-out. “In talking with the coaching staff and the manager, we just felt, ‘Look, at some point this is counter-productive, and what we need to do is get him to Las Vegas, get his swing back and hopefully get him back here in a relatively short period of time.’
“Frankly, we felt we put it off probably a little too long and maybe to Michael’s detriment, so these [moves] are unrelated.”