Photo by Ed Delany, MMO
As first reported by John Vittas of Sun Preps, Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo will begin a rehab assignment Friday evening for the High-A St. Lucie Mets. He is the lineup, batting second and DH’ing.
Nimmo hasn’t played since May 20 after his season was derailed with a bulging cervical disk issue. He has been sidelined since then, and tonight will be his first return to live game action.
For now, he is just starting at DH to ease back into the action. Eventually, however, he should get some time in the outfield to work his way back up to the Mets before the end of the season.
“It will be a situation where we monitor him daily,” manager Mickey Callaway told reporters. “We’re optimistic that he’s gonna do fine rehab-wise, we just gotta see how long it’s gonna take.”
Nimmo’s injury issues hindered his performance early on this year, as he was hitting a meager .200/.344/.323 in 43 games. However, Nimmo has proven to be an All-Star caliber player as well as a great leadoff hitter when healthy, as evidenced by his 149 wRC+ and 4.5 WAR in 535 plate appearances last season.
“That would be big, ” Callaway said in response to a potential Nimmo return. “We have some guys down, to get some guys back would be a huge boost for us. We’re kind of right-handed dominant at this point, to get another lefty would be big for us.”
The team certainly misses having Nimmo in the lineup, especially with the absence of Jeff McNeil right now. As the Mets fight in an incredibly competitive Wild Card race, adding a big bat like Nimmo would undoubtedly be a huge catalyst for the team as they set out to make a magical run.
