Michael Conforto's plummeting market value shows how big of a mistake Dodgers made

We all have our misses in life. There are those times that you are absolutely sure something will work out, even despite evidence to the contrary, just to have it blow up spectacularly in your face. That's what happened to the Los Angeles Dodgers with Michael Conforto in 2025.

Conforto has had something of a strange career. A first-round pick of the New York Mets in 2014, Conforto became their No. 5 overall prospect and rose to No. 82 on MLB Pipeline's top-100 in 2015, making his big league debut just over a year after being drafted out of Oregon State.

By 2017, Conforto looked like a future star. At 24 years old, he crushed 27 dingers, posted a 147 wRC+, and accumulated 4.3 fWAR in just 109 games. He proved to be a well above average hitter through 2020, posting wRC+ numbers ranging between 119 and 158 in that span.

However, by 2021, when Conforto should have just been reaching his prime in his age-28 season, he began to fall off. He'd post a 104 wRC+, and then miss the entire 2022 season after undergoing shoulder surgery. His return in 2023 saw him hit almost exactly league-average, posting a 99 wRC+.

Michael Conforto's tanking value shows how big a mistake the Dodgers made

Conforto's 2024 campaign was something of a resurgence, but still his .237/.309/.450 line was a far cry from his peak, and his declining defense sapped much of his value.

Still, when the Dodgers signed him to a one-year, $17 million contract, they thought they were getting a bat who could at least mash right-handed pitching, even if he needed to be planted on the bench versus southpaws and left a lot to be desired in left field.

Even with that description, $17 million sounds like a stretch. The short-term deal helped, but Los Angeles paid him like a solidly above-average regular, rather than a platoon bat with major defensive concerns.

Perhaps they were blinded by his performance against them in 2024 as a member of the rival San Francisco Giants. Conforto teed off against Dodgers' pitching that season, slashing .276/.344/.517.

Regardless, the Dodgers stuck with him, hoping to recapture some of that magic for the entire regular season, mercilessly pulling the plug by the time October rolled around.

Now, Conforto's market value is in the gutter following his abysmal .199/.305/.333 showing in Los Angeles. Combine that atrocious batting line with a defensive trainwreck in left field, and you have a -0.6 fWAR player whose best shot at redemption is a prove-it deal.

Spotrac pegs his market value at $6.67 million. Even that, less than half of what he got paid in 2025, seems like an overpay. Matthew Pouliot of NBC Sports pegged him for a one-year, $5 million deal at the beginning of the offseason.

And that's what the Dodgers should have paid the last time around. While they were ultimately proven wrong in believing he could be a solid, strong-side platoon option for them, the idea was sound. The real issue was the confidence they placed in him, which led to an unnecessary contractual overture and even more disappointing results than anyone could have foreseen.

Fortunately, the Dodgers have the money to simply eat such a mistake and move on. If only we were all so lucky.