Free-agent outfielder Michael Conforto has agreed to a Minor League non-roster invite deal with the Cubs, a source told MLB.com's Jordan Bastian. The club has not confirmed.
Prior to 2025, Conforto had a lengthy track record of above-average offensive performance. He entered this past season with a career line of .251/.348/.456, good for a 120 OPS+. That included at least a league-average 100 OPS+ in every season from 2017-24 (excluding 2022, which he missed due to injury). With the Giants in 2024, Conforto had a .759 OPS and 115 OPS+, to go along with 20 home runs in 130 games.
However, as Conforto heads into his age-33 season – he’ll turn 33 on March 1 – he will be in search of a significant rebound. There were high hopes for the left-handed batter after he signed a one-year, $17 million contract with the Dodgers last offseason, moving from a tough hitters’ park in San Francisco to a much more favorable one in Los Angeles. That’s not what materialized, though. Conforto slashed just .199/.305/.333 (79 OPS+) in 138 games with the Dodgers, hitting 12 home runs and 36 RBIs in by far the toughest offensive season of his 10-year career.
By the end of April, Conforto’s OPS sat at only .569 – and it never really recovered. His only month in 2025 with an OPS of .700 or higher was July (.827). And while the Dodgers kept him consistently in the lineup throughout the regular season, they left him off each of their postseason rosters on their way to a World Series title.
Conforto was not eligible to receive a qualifying offer this offseason since he got one from the Mets in 2021. Thus, there is no Draft pick compensation attached to him, or penalty for signing him.
There were some positives for Conforto under the hood. He remained a patient hitter this year, ranking in the 82nd percentile in chase rate and the 84th percentile in walk rate. His bat speed was well above average (77th percentile) and down only slightly from 2024. His Statcast expected batting average (.237), slugging (.403) and wOBA (.330) – based in part on quality of contact – all were significantly above his actual stats. In fact, among 251 qualifying hitters, just one (the Royals’ Salvador Perez) suffered from a larger gap between his expected and actual wOBA than Conforto (43 points).
Still, Conforto will have a lot to prove in 2026, both offensively and defensively. He made each of his 122 starts for the Dodgers in left field but ranked in just the fifth percentile in Statcast’s Outs Above Average, at minus-8. After posting plus-13 OAA in the outfield from 2016-21, he is at minus-14 since missing all of 2022 due to right shoulder surgery.