Following a breakout campaign in 2018 for the New York Mets, many of us were excited to have Brandon Nimmo already entrenched as a starting outfielder heading into this past year. Instead of having a full season’s worth of games to build upon that breakout, he dealt with his fair share of issues before finishing strong.
Upon finally getting an opportunity to play regularly in April 2018, Nimmo took advantage of it by producing a 193 wRC+ through his first 43 plate appearances. He followed that up with a similarly awesome 169 (nice) wRC+ through 101 plate appearances in May, and the rest was history en route to a 4.5-fWAR performance.
This past March/April, though? It was a much different experience. In fact, that applies to what he did from Opening Day through May 20th before hitting the injured list with neck issues. The first 161 plate appearances of his 2019 season led to a .200/.344/.323 line and an 88 wRC+. While his 16.1% walk rate during this time was among the 10 best in baseball, it was accompanied by a 29.8% strikeout rate, which was among the 15 worst in baseball.
Not necessarily the best combination to have.
He went on to spend what felt like forever on the sideline as the Mets went through valleys and peaks with regard to team performance prior to Nimmo returning to the lineup on September 1st. It’s not as if his future with New York was hanging in the balance depending on how he finished the season (that was never brought up anywhere), but Nimmo isn’t a baseball-playing robot — he’s human. After watching what the Mets just did, it’d only be normal for him to potentially put a little pressure on himself to perform down the stretch and remind everyone what he can do.
With a pretty set infield moving forward, the salary of Jed Lowrie on the books, an All-Star season from Jeff McNeil, a breakout of J.D. Davis, the presence of Dominic Smith (for now, at least), and a possible return of Yoenis Cespedes in 2020, there’s a bit of a roster logjam in the outfield. So, it definitely wasn’t a bad thing for Nimmo to show that he was both healthy and productive over the season’s final month.
His performance was exactly what we would’ve expected from Nimmo based off his 2018 numbers, and his ending to the year was what we all hoped the entire season was going to be for him. Through his final 93 trips to the plate, the 26-year-old posted a much more Nimmo-like .261/.430/.565 triple slash, which led to a 159 wRC+.
The progression he had between his abbreviated first half and an abbreviated second half is noteworthy, too. Here’s how his walk rate, strikeout rate, soft-hit rate, and hard-hit rate all changed between these two periods of time:
The same can be said about the progression of his plate-discipline numbers:
Although his chase rate went up, it was still much lower than the league-wide average of 31.6%. More importantly, he got more aggressive on pitches inside the strike zone, and that increased aggression led to more contact. With the rise in hard contact during his return in September, it’s not hard to see how Nimmo was able to not only increase his overall productivity, but to also see an uptick in power production (his ISO went from .123 to .304).
Nimmo’s reemergence — where he seemingly stepped right in and performed like nothing ever happened — adds to a part of the roster that Brodie Van Wagenen will need to make some decisions about. Based off how he built the 2019 roster, one would imagine he’ll favor having more depth than not, but still, something will have to give for 2020.
Lowrie and Robinson Cano haven’t exactly been models for staying healthy over the past year, but right now, they’re likely penciled into positions that fills up the infield when accompanied by Amed Rosario and Pete Alonso. That also pushes McNeil and Davis into the outfield with the handful of other options out there. Even if Cespedes isn’t counted on for anything, there’s still a bit of a logjam going on.
And obviously, the Mets have some holes that need to be filled elsewhere, so this perceived surplus of position players gives BVW some options to consider, which we all know he loves to do.
It was great to see Nimmo finally return from a way-too-long stint on the injured list before the year wrapped up. It was even better to see him return to the player we saw have success last season. It also makes what is surely an already tricky situation to maneuver even more tricky for the front office.
