After spending the vast majority of the 2025 regular season with Michael Conforto locked in as Dave Roberts' everyday left fielder, the Los Angeles Dodgers made the internally controversial decision to leave the free agent outfielder off their postseason roster, giving the nod to playoff hero Kike Hernandez in his usual spot.
Now, for Dodgers fans, this was a decision worth celebrating, as few players saw their stock dip externally more than the former San Francisco Giants fielder, but how did it feel for Conforto to go from an everyday player to a postseason scratch, especially with free agency approaching? Well, in an interview with Mike Puma of The New York Post, Conforto broke down the situation, noting that while he's enjoyed the playoff atmosphere, he's using the organization's decision as motivation.
“I am just trying to enjoy this experience and soak it all in and trying to stay ready if they need me in this series or the next one,” Conforto told The Post. “But definitely not being on the roster is motivating, so I have some things I have to work on and go into the offseason and take care of those things, and we’ll see what happens.”
Asked about how his season shook out in Los Angeles, Conforto noted that while he struggled early, he was proud that he was able to get things together down the stretch, to the point where he can build on it into the future.
“Personally, it was trying. There were a lot of rough patches in there, but to be on a team of this caliber — I had to readjust the idea of the role I play on this team, so there is a little bit of an adjustment period, and toward the end of the season I started to do more of the things I needed to do in the role that I was in,” Conforto noted.
“But to see how this team compares, how they celebrate wins, let alone the star power — it’s just from top to bottom, staff and training staff, analytics, how cohesive it is, it’s really impressive to see how it all works together and the team approach that they take up there. It’s really eye-opening.”
Will Conforto be back with the Dodgers next season? No, probably not, but he will most likely still be on an MLB roster, even if he isn't going to be making nearly $20 million for his troubles. If he can use his up-and-down 2025 to get right into the future, it will only spell good news for his own career moving forward.
