{"id":672629,"date":"2026-03-22T00:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T00:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/672629\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T00:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T00:45:18","slug":"cubs-to-add-michael-conforto-to-opening-day-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/672629\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs To Add Michael Conforto To Opening Day Roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran outfielder Michael Conforto<\/a><\/strong> has been informed he will be on the Cubs\u2019 Opening Day roster, according to Patrick Mooney of the Athletic<\/a>. In related news, it appears that outfielder Seiya Suzuki<\/a><\/strong> will not be ready for Opening Day, according to manager Craig Counsell<\/a><\/strong> (link<\/a> via Mooney).<\/p>\n

Conforto, 33, had been in camp on a minor-league deal with a big-league Spring Training invite. On the heels of a rough 2025 season with the Dodgers, both offensively and defensively, he seemed like a long shot to make the big-league roster in Chicago. Center field was never an option. The North Siders have one of the game\u2019s best defensive center fielders in Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/a><\/strong>, and Conforto has not played up the middle since 2019. That left the two corner outfield spots, DH, and the bench as potential landing spots, though he seemed blocked by the presence of Suzuki, Ian Happ<\/a><\/strong>, Moises Ballesteros<\/a><\/strong>, and Tyler Austin<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

With the recent injury to Austin and today\u2019s update on Suzuki, Conforto may get some outfield reps in the early going. Austin was brought in on a one-year, $1.25MM deal this offseason to shore up the bench, though he\u2019ll now miss several months following knee surgery at the end of February. That leaves Matt Shaw<\/a><\/strong>, who was forced out of a starting spot by the Alex Bregman<\/a><\/strong> signing, as the main infield backup on the roster. In the outfield, Conforto and Dylan Carlson<\/a><\/strong> are projected as the backups according to RosterResource<\/a>. With Suzuki potentially starting the year on the injured list, the team may use Conforto and Carlson in a right field platoon. In that scenario, Conforto would draw starts against right-handed pitchers, against whom he has a 121 career wRC+.<\/p>\n

Conforto enters 2026 with 11 years of big-league experience. His peak came with the Mets from 2017-20. In that time, he batted .265\/.369\/.495 and graded out 33% better than average by wRC+. His 24.4% strikeout rate was less than ideal, but he compensated through a combination of power and on-base ability. Conforto hit 97 home runs in that four-year span and only once posted an isolated slugging percentage below .200 (.193 in the pandemic season). Meanwhile, he got on base regularly thanks in part to an excellent 12.7% walk rate.<\/p>\n

His performance fell off from 2021 onward. He was roughly average (104 wRC+) in his final year with the Mets. He underwent shoulder surgery in April 2022 while still a free agent, knocking him out for that campaign. In 391 games from 2023-25 with the Giants and Dodgers, Conforto was average overall, but inconsistent from year to year. In 2023, his strikeout, walk, and power numbers were only slightly down from 2021, resulting in a 99 wRC+. The following year saw him bounce back to 12% above average. The Dodgers bought into that rebound with a one-year, $17MM deal for Conforto in December 2024. Unfortunately, despite a roughly average hard-hit rate, Conforto\u2019s power and contact were diminished, and he finished the year with a career-worst 83 wRC+.<\/p>\n

More to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran outfielder Michael Conforto has been informed he will be on the Cubs\u2019 Opening Day roster, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":672630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[27349,8753,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-672629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-michael-conforto","tag-seiya-suzuki","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116270067077157658","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}