Had Major League Baseball and the rest of the sports world not been put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, Mets outfielder Michael Conforto may not have been in the lineup on Opening Day in late March.

The left-handed-hitting outfielder suffered an oblique injury during spring training in Port St. Lucie, but after close to a four-month break, he now says he’s completely healthy and ready to play.

“I haven’t really thought about the oblique in a while,” Conforto said on Saturday. “It would have been close for me to be there for the real Opening Day back in March, but I haven’t thought about it, like I said. I was able to do all kinds of rehab after things were shut down in Florida, and then I was able to go to Arizona and continue my rehab there. Everything’s good. I’m 100 percent and glad to be back with the guys.”

Conforto was able to continue his rehab during MLB’s hiatus, and while he didn’t face any live pitching, he was able to still do plenty of baseball activities.

“A lot of cage swings. I was in Arizona, things were good for a while. I actually got out of there before it got too bad. It was kind of like a strange offseason. I was still in the gym,” Conforto said. “I had my bubble with the guys that I worked out with. All baseball guys, so we were trying to make sure we were careful with our exposure. I was able to work out, I was able to get on a field and catch fly balls, ground balls, throw, run the bases. Most of the hitting was inside. I didn’t see any live pitching, but I’m looking forward to the next couple days here and getting back into that.”

As he rehabbed, Conforto was also a part of the lengthy back-and-forth between the league and players in trying to come to a deal for the 2020 season. As the Mets’ player rep, Conforto kept his teammates in the loop with how the negotiations were going, talks that he called “frustrating” at times.

“I was kind of excited to not have to talk about this stuff anymore. It was an experience. I’ve never been involved in any of that bargaining-type stuff,” said Conforto. “Being the player rep the last three years now, this is my first experience with it. It was stressful at times, it was frustrating at times, but at the end of the day we got to where we are now. A lot of it was really me just relaying information to the guys and trying to make sure that everybody was informed and then we just take the group decision Everything was about unity as players. I was just the voice of the majority of the team on the issues that we voted on.

“We got to where we are now, and I’m looking forward to just moving forward and focusing on baseball.”

And now that Conforto and the rest of his teammates can put their focus on playing the game, it’s certainly a boost for the team to see Yoenis Cespedes back in the outfield, as the slugger was part of the team’s Friday workout.

“He looks like a monster,” said Conforto. “He looks like he’s motivated, he looks like he’s in shape. I’ve seen some of the stuff that he was doing to get himself ready, some videos of him working out at his ranch. The guy is definitely hungry. He misses the game.

"I say this every time someone asks me about him, he’s a great teammate. He brings energy to our drills to the cage. He’s just a guy that you miss having around, so I’m excited that he’s back and he’s feeling good, and hopefully he can do what he does best for us and bring the thunder with that bat and make some plays in the outfield.”

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