Mickey Callaway spoke with the Pete McCarthy and Sal Licata on 710 WOR yesterday and gave off the impression a position change might be happening soon.
The position change he was referring to was in regards to Jay Bruce moving from the outfield to first base and Brandon Nimmo starting every day as a result.
“We want to be the best team we can possibly be and if getting Nimmo more at-bats does that then we’re going to do that at some point.”
According to James Wagner of the New York Times, this is not just talk either, as Bruce has been taking grounders at first over the past week.
With Adrian Gonzalez starting to struggle, this is not very surprising. The 35-year old has hit .203/.300/.322 with two home runs and 12 RBI this season, which is obviously less than the team would want at the first base position. This goes along with the fact that the Mets are only paying him the league minimum, which could make a release of the veteran plausible, at the very least.
The other factor at play here to consider is that the Mets lineup probably looks best when Nimmo is playing right now. The 25-year old is hitting .296/.500/.593 with one homer and two RBI this season in 27 at-bats.
While the sample size is limited, Nimmo’s presence in the lineup gives the Mets a luxury they currently do not have. That luxury is the ability to move Michael Conforto out of the leadoff spot and into the third spot in the lineup.
Nimmo is the exact prototype of a leadoff hitter, with his ability to get on base (career OBP of .383) while not having much in the power department (seven career home runs).
Meanwhile, Conforto is probably better suited for the middle the order, despite his ability to get on base as he has the power that Nimmo lacks.
Moving Conforto down in the order also gives the Mets the ability to better protect Yoenis Cespedes as he is currently hitting in front of Bruce usually.
If this move were to take place Bruce likely would move to the fifth spot in the lineup, with Todd Frazier or Asdrubal Cabrera hitting cleanup.
That being said, the Mets will have to decide whether they want to have Bruce play first base with regularity, as he does not have much experience in his career there.
However, he has appeared to at least be manageable for his career as he has -1 DRS in 117 innings at the position.
Obviously, that is a very limited sample size, but the results were by no means disturbing to the organization.
Bruce, though, has stated his preference in his past to play in the outfield. Last night, he gave a new take on the idea of playing the position with regularity, as detailed by Tim Healey of Newsday.
“I told them I’m open to it. It’s not really my choice, but I’m open to it, you know? I’m an employee here.”
The 31-year old’s response was not exactly a glowing one on the idea, as he appeared to be delegating the decision to the Mets, but at the same time, he did not say anything to completely oppose this option either.
Taking all this information into account, it would be surprising if Bruce did not pick up a first baseman’s mitt this season, even if only for a limited period of time.
