Giants outfielder Michael Conforto eager to start season in New York. Here’s why Gabe Kapler feels he’s in for a big year

SAN FRANCISCO — Giants outfielder Michael Conforto was always going to be a little bit nervous going into opening day, considering what he’s been through.

That Conforto’s first Major League Baseball game in over 18 months will be on the biggest stage in baseball — Yankee Stadium — only heightens his anticipation.

“I’m sure I’ll have a lot of jitters, some nerves being back for a real major league game,” Conforto said Monday at Oracle Park. “The atmosphere is going to be crazy in New York. I’m excited to just get out there and get the season started.”

The Giants open the 2023 season Thursday against Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees — and Conforto, who missed the entire 2022 season with a shoulder injury, might be the most eager player of all.

Conforto’s last regular-season game in a big-league stadium was Oct. 3, 2021, at Truist Park in Atlanta, as he and the New York Mets wrapped up a disappointing 77-85 year.

His .729 on-base-plus-slugging percentage and 14 homers in 125 games that year were his lowest totals since his first full MLB season in 2016, when he had a .729 OPS and 12 homers in 109 games. Conforto’s 14 home runs that year were well short of the career-best 33he hit in 2019.

Conforto, 30, injured his right shoulder while training in January of last year and was ruled out for the season after he had surgery in April.

Healthy again, Conforto wants to show he can still produce at the level that made him a National League All-Star in 2017, and a second-team All-MLB selection in 2020, when he hit a career-best .322.

“I could definitely say there were good days and there were not-so-good days, days where I was very sore,” Conforto said of his rehabilitation. “But every day I just came back with maybe a little bit more range, a little bit more strength and that kept me going. I just had to be real patient with it.”

Conforto signed a two-year, $36 million deal with the Giants in January and spent the first part of spring training getting comfortable at the plate and in the outfield. In 47 spring at-bats, Conforto hit .213 with four home runs with a .758 OPS.

“I got that out of the way and I’m feeling good, feeling healthy, shoulder feels good,” Conforto said. “I’m full-go now.”

Giants manager Gabe Kapler was in a somewhat similar situation in his playing career. At 31, he missed the entire 2007 season as he rehabbed a torn Achilles tendon.

Kapler came back in 2008 — after spending a season managing the Greenville Drive, the Low-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox — and played for three more seasons before he retired.

Kapler’s year in Milwaukee in 2008 was among his best in 12 big-league seasons, as he hit over .300 for the third and final time, and had a career-best .838 OPS.

“I have an appreciation for how grateful you are when you get back and how the human body heals,” Kapler said. “You give it some time off and whatever injury it is that you’re working on, it gets better, but so do a lot of those aches and pains that you experience from just the grind of Major League Baseball seasons.

“I think we’re dealing with a fresh-minded and a fresh-bodied Michael Conforto. Just an All-Star caliber player and so far in our camp he’s been nothing but healthy and progressing nicely all the way through. His shoulder responded well to the rehab process, he’s throwing accurately to bases, he’s ready to dive in the outfield. There are no restrictions on him and pretty confident that he’s going to have a good year.”

Conforto, in seven seasons with the Mets, has never had the opportunity to open a season at Yankee Stadium, but he has a pretty good idea of what to expect once he and the Giants arrive at 161st Street in the Bronx on Thursday, ready for a fresh start.

“It’s awesome. I’m super thankful, so grateful, and just kind of overwhelmed with all those things,” Conforto said. “Just to be able to be back and feel the atmosphere of a major league park again, and to get to start the season in New York, it’s going be a lot of fun.”