NEW YORK -- Although 2014 first-round pick Michael Conforto appears to be the logical call-up when left fielder Michael Cuddyer likely lands on the disabled list in the 24 hours, New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson insisted the appropriateness of summoning Conforto is not clear-cut.
The immediate success of catcher Kyle Schwarber with the Chicago Cubs since his June 16 major league debut is the exception across baseball, Alderson maintained.
Schwarber, 22, was selected fourth overall in 2014 out of Indiana University. Conforto, 22, was selected 10th overall out of Oregon State in the same draft.
Schwarber had 310 plate appearances at the Double-A level or higher before his promotion. Conforto entered Thursday’s Binghamton game at Trenton with 192 Double-A plate appearances.
The difference in upper-level minor league experience comes because the Cubs were more aggressive in 2014 after signing Schwarber. He spent most of last season in the high-A Florida State League, while the Mets mostly left Conforto with first-year players at short-season Brooklyn.
“One of the considerations is that most young players who come up to the big leagues aren’t terribly successful in the short term,” Alderson said. “We’ve got an example, a player in Chicago right now, who has done pretty well in the short term. But if you look overall at young players who come to the big leagues, it’s not like they make an immediate impression.
“We’ve been fortunate here with the pitching we’ve brought up and the immediate impact most of them have had. They’ve been pretty uniformly successful from the time they got here, with maybe one or two exceptions I’m not thinking about. They quickly established themselves. That doesn’t always happen. And in the case of those pitchers, we’ve had the opportunity to pick and choose a spot for them to debut, the timing, etc. We haven’t always had that luxury with some of our position players. But most young position players that come to the big leagues for the first time aren’t all that successful.
“Now somebody like Conforto could be the exception. Somebody like Conforto could come up with the intended purpose of only being here for a week or 10 days to get through a player shortage that we might have. So there are different scenarios. But I think fundamentally you have to keep in mind that young players aren’t always extraordinarily successful from the get-go.”
Conforto is hitting .321 with five homers and 26 RBIs in 168 at-bats with Binghamton through Wednesday.
Asked what would be the harm in calling up Conforto and seeing if he succeeds, Alderson noted that a prospect could be harmed in the longer term if they have not yet developed the capacity to handle failure.
“The downside is sometimes not being successful at the major league level can have a longer-standing impact on a player. There are a variety of other issues,” Alderson said.
Still, the GM added: “He’s an individual. We have to take into account his own maturity and skill set and not be bound by some of these generalities about young players. We’re taking a lot of different things into account.”