As just about every baseball fan expected this season, the Los Angeles Dodgers are atop the NL West as May reaches an end, running baseball's best division with a 34-22 record.
They've gotten elite contributions up and down the roster, from reigning MVP Shohei Ohtani (3.0 fWAR, 181 wRC+), reigning World Series MVP Freddie Freeman (2.5 fWAR, 1.044 OPS), catcher Will Smith (2.4 fWAR, 17.7% walk rate), and ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto (1.8 fWAR, 1.97 ERA).
However, the team isn't perfect, and one free agent signing is already proving to be among the biggest busts off the offseason.
Michael Conforto's one-year, $17 million deal made sense when he signed it back in December, but now, he appears to be the weak link on baseball's best team.
Dodgers should move on from Michael Conforto after slow start
Prior to this season, the lowest wRC+ Conforto has recorded in a single season was back in 2016 (when he was 23 years old) with the New York Mets (97 wRC+). However, he's at a 79 mark this year, and he isn't getting a ton better as the year goes on.
He did post a 72 wRC+ in March/April, which he's improved to 89 in May. However, he's gone from being an everyday player to one strictly used in a platoon role (which, in fairness, is arguably his best role), and his batted ball data doesn't offer a ton of hope for the future.
Excluding his 92nd percentile walk rate (14.3%), Conforto has been decidedly average or worse in just about every notable hitting metric this season. He's striking out a whopping 28.6% of the time, more than four percentage points worse than last season with the San Francisco Giants. That's aided by the fact he's whiffing at a nearly identical 28.2% rate, which can be traced to his newfound struggles against heaters (24.3% whiff rate against four-seamers, four percent higher than 2024).
He's also simply just stopped hitting for power, with just three home runs on the year and one in May. For someone with 162-game averages of 26 home runs and a near-.800 OPS, it's pretty alarming Conforto is on pace for just 10 home runs and a .600 OPS in 2025.
None of this is to say he's finished — he's only 32 and had a strong season with the Giants last year — but the Dodgers can't afford to be the team that fixes him. He's taking up too many at-bats that can be allotted to actually productive players, like top prospect Dalton Rushing, who played quite a bit of left field (Conforto's position) prior to being called up.
Yes, eating what remains on Conforto's $17 million salary hurts, especially for a repeat tax-offender like the Dodgers. But they can afford the financial hit, especially if it leads to more wins.
Even when you can buy all the best players, not every player will work out. At some point soon, the Dodgers will accept that.