Michael Conforto’s wild ride for the Giants included a personal mentor

Milwaukee — Michael Conforto had his “I’m back” moment on the Giants’ successful road trip against the Twins and the Walpurs.

423 and may have set himself up to win National League MVP honors as the Giants won five out of seven at Minnesota and Milwaukee. He hit three home runs all week, struck out eight, scored eight, and even stole a base. If you go back a little bit, he’s hit seven homers in his past 17 games. 168 as recently as May 11th. Now he’s hit .244 – maybe still low enough to make him startle when he sees it on the scoreboard, maybe not low enough to make him jump.

He did his part to fuel the comeback that featured Sunday’s shortstop as well, hitting two singles and drawing a walk in the Giants’ 7-5 loss to the Brewers.

But Conforto’s most satisfying moment on the trip didn’t come on any of his home run swings. It didn’t even happen while he was standing in the batter’s box. It happened on a play in which the Giants lost a 1-0 lead in the seventh inning on Saturday afternoon. Victor Caratini lined an RBI single down the right field line off Logan Webb and then rushed for second base. Conforto’s throw from the right corner was steady and accurate, Casey Schmidt applied the mark, and the Giants scored the third.

Conforto’s throw may not have been as useful in Saturday’s final 3-1 win as Mitch Hanniger’s home run in the eighth inning, but it kept the Giants from making a pitch change and a stressful situation. It also allowed Webb to remain the winning pocket record holder.

And for Conforto, it was the final evidence that he’s back all the way after his year-long rehab after major right shoulder surgery.

“It’s crazy to think where I started with the Giants, I’m still in rehab protocol,” Conforto said. “There were still some questions about whether I would be able to start the season healthy. So it was a great moment for me to knock one out. I took a couple of throws where I had the chance, but that one felt free and easy, like no other I would have made before surgery.”

This was Conforto’s third outside assist as a giant, but the two earlier exercises involved chops or relays. It was his first direct assist on a base in nearly two years. The last time he threw a runner at second base attempting to extend a single was on May 7, 2021, when he slashed Arizona’s Asdrubal Cabrera in the ninth inning of a tie game at Citi Field that the Mets went on to win.

His help on Saturday came at a similar juncture.

“I’m sure Cartini is thinking he’s the winner of the race and trying to put on a whooping play,” Conforto said. “It was definitely a big moment. I knew I had a shot. I just had to put it right in. I turned around and saw where he was, and just focused on my sniffer.”

Conforto acknowledged that the shoulder surgery he had in April 2022 was more involved than previously disclosed. He underwent a labrum repair as well as a rotator cuff repair as well as a tightening of his shoulder capsule – nearly identical to the surgery he had on his left shoulder in 2017.

“I’m just a guy with very mobile shoulders,” said Conforto, who suffered partial dislocations in both joint sockets while playing high school football. “When you’re young everything zips back up. It’s a little different once you’re older. But I don’t have any issues with the left one. And the healing of this one has been phenomenal. It’s kind of crazy what they can do. You used to be if you had that kind of shoulder injury.” … That was the case.”

The Giants made new sweeps of both shoulders in December before signing him to a two-year, $36 million contract. Conforto’s medical staff said they were encouraged by the fact that he had not had any left shoulder problems in the past five seasons. They expected the right shoulder to recover similarly.

But the right shoulder is also his shoulder. And the progress was not always steady.

The Giants did more than play slow Conforto in spring training as a precaution. And he admitted that preparing for opening day had been a race against time.

“When I came to camp early at the end of January, I was only throwing 90 feet,” Conforto said. “It wasn’t fluid. It was very mechanical. I’d never thought of throwing a mechanic in my life, and suddenly I had to develop mechanisms that wouldn’t hurt my shoulder.”

“I had tightness, but the only way you can get your throwing range back after surgery is by throwing up. You can stretch it as much as you like, but you have to start gradually and try not to push it in too much as the pain will stop the progression. I didn’t experience anything until we really started running it (in February). I had a few days where I felt like, “Shoot, that doesn’t look cool.” Your mind goes places. “Did I mess something up?” But those days go away. Then when there’s some pain, it’s like, “Hey, let’s take it.” easily today.”

“The coaching staff kept my head in the right place; they took care of my shoulders and gave me all the resources to make sure it was healthy.”

Giants assistant coach Alyssa Nakken helped direct Conforto’s progress in the spring as part of her work with the football players on jumps, reads, and drills. Even if Conforto’s shoulder didn’t respond the same way every morning, Nakken said she never worried about an inconsistent stance.

“Mike is very consistent with his personality and as a player,” Nakken said. “Since the first day in the spring, we had a plan for him, and it was part of the development planning process to get him back where he was. We all understood it was a process, and he (starting with the year on the injured list) was definitely on our minds. But there’s no point in thinking about that.” “There’s just a point in dealing with how to make the most of every day, even if that’s what recovery day is going to look like. We wanted him every day to get a little closer to not necessarily feeling stronger but feeling more confident. And then he’d get to the point where he could Getting a throw like that, which is, “Oh, man, I’m back at it.”

“He was a really influential player for us.”

Conforto and Nakken were quick to count on Giants athletic trainer Dave Groshner and the medical staff. And yes, Conforto realizes by the bizarre coincidence that this is the same medical staff who suspended Carlos Correa’s 13-year contract when concerns about his ankle unexpectedly surfaced at his normal level. The two situations aren’t quite comparable – taking risks is very different for a 13-year contract than for a two-year contract involving a player’s withdrawal – but it made things interesting because Correa and Conforto share the same agent. .

Barely two weeks after the collapse of the Korea deal, the Giants reached a deal with another Scott Boras client.

“The whole situation was crazy, but it didn’t affect my decision or Scott’s ability to negotiate with the Giants,” Conforto said. “The Giants were on the radar before the Korea stuff broke. So I really have no idea how things could have turned out differently.”

Don’t waste your time playing the what-if game when you’re happy with how things are going.

“I love this team,” Conforto said. “It’s been a lot of fun so far, even with the rough start to the season. We really came together and were blown away. I think the guys are great. It’s great to be where I am now and feel like everything is right.”

(Photo by Michael Conforto: Jesse Johnson/USA Today)