Last year, Brandon Nimmo was the second best hitter in the National League with a 148 wRC+. That mark was also good for sixth best in all of baseball. His .404 OBP was the second best in the National League and fourth best in all of baseball. As the 2019 season began, those same skills were on display.

Even while dealing with a bulging disc in his neck and getting hit on the hand, Nimmo walked in 16.1 percent of his plate appearances. Combine that with the hits (base hits and HBP), and Nimmo was reaching base 34.4 percent of the time. In a weakened state where he was very injured, he was still getting on base at a very high clip.

However, with the nature of his injury, there was real concern about his ability to be this player once again. He’d have a rehab stint in June which did not last a week before he had to be shut down. He would travel to see David Wright‘s doctor. There was every bit of a concern Nimmo would never be able to make it back to the player he was last year. Really, when you invoke Wright’s doctor’s name, you have a concern he may not make it back at all.

But then on September 1, when rosters expanded, Nimmo was activated. He’d appear as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning, draw a walk, and sprint to first with that Nimmo smile on his face. In that moment, you could see Nimmo was still Nimmo.

In the ensuing games, he has proven that to be the case. In the past seven games, Nimmo has had 22 plate appearances drawing nine walks. If he did nothing but draw those walks, he would have a .409 OBP. However, it is more than the walks. With the neck injury, you could be justifiably concerned over whether the power would return. With Nimmo also hitting a double and a homer over the nine game stretch, those concerns should be assuaged.

In his return, Nimmo is 3-f0r-12 at the plate with four runs, a double, homer, and four RBI. He has walked nine times, and he has struck out four times. That’s right. Nimmo has walked more than double the amount of times he has struck out.

In September, Nimmo leads the Majors in BB%, is third in walks drawn, and he is third in OBP. His 209 wRC+ over this stretch is 16th best in the majors, and his 0.3 fWAR is 26th best. While you can and should look at this as a small sample size, when you look at the Major League rankings and the skills utilized to get to these stats, you realize this is what Nimmo was last year.

Put another way, Nimmo is back to being Nimmo.