Contrary to popular belief, Brandon Nimmo is actually a very good baseball player.
Shocking, right?
It seems as though a lot of people have pushed Nimmo to the side, completely erasing his robust 2018 campaign from their memory. There seems to be a lot of opinions of Nimmo on Twitter, saying he’s “bad” and “nothing more than a guy who smiles and sprints to first base when he draws a walk.”
But think about this for a moment: just one year ago, Nimmo put up nearly the same fWAR (4.5) as Pete Alonso did in 2019 (4.8), and he did it in 21 less games.
With that being said, Nimmo is the Mets’ offensive x-factor for 2020.
Last year, the outfielder hurt his neck early in the season, then subsequently dealt with whiplash and a bulging disk in his neck that ultimately sidelined him for more than half a season.
Overall on the campaign, the Wyoming native hit .221/.375/.407 with eight home runs, 29 RBI, a .340 wOBA and 114 wRC+ to go along with 1.3 fWAR.
However, a lot of those numbers were bogged down from when he was trying to battle through the injury early on in the season. Once he came back in the second half, he owned a triple slash of .261/.430/.565 in 26 games.
Going into 2020, Nimmo is going to be 27-years-old and entering his prime years. As it currently stands, it seems as though he will be patroling center field day in and day out.
While defense isn’t necessarily his strong suit, having a healthy Nimmo back in the lineup will only be beneficial to the Mets. The outfielder consistently gets on base (.387 career OBP), has a .827 career OPS and can muscle up on the ball when he needs to (17 home runs in 2018).
Overall, the Mets lineup is slated to be strong, with Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Michael Conforto, Amed Rosario and J.D. Davis rounding out the rest, but New York is going to need a 2018 like campaign from Nimmo. If he can again put up over 4 fWAR, that would soften the blow if any other hitter regresses, or if the rotation doesn’t recover from losing Zack Wheeler (over 4 fWAR in 2019).
Apart from Nimmo, another important piece in the lineup will be Robinson Cano, but in the latter part of his career, it’s anyone’s guess whether he can ever be similar to the player he was when he was in his prime again.
