After Wednesday’s loss to the Marlins, New York Mets manager Mickey Callaway had some glowing compliments for Brandon Nimmo and the progress he’s made this season.
“His on-base percentage kind of speaks for itself. I still think that he does a (really) good job of putting at-bats together. Even if he doesn’t get a hit, something good can come out of it.”
On Thursday night, Nimmo delivered on his manager’s praise and then some, going 4-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored, raising his slash line for the year to .294/.450/.541.
After the game, Callaway spoke to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, again about the giant strides Nimmo has made this year.
“The extra-base hits now are coming. When you have a guy that can be as patient as he can be and walk, and then also hit extra-base hits, that turns into a really valuable player.”
Nimmo has now reached base safely in eight straight plate-appearances going back to Wednesday night’s game, and five of his last seven hits have been extra-base hits.
Again to DiComo, Nimmo said, “That’s my job. That’s what I’m supposed to do. I’m in a good place right now.”
He certainly appears to be in a pretty good place right now. Among all MLB players with over 100 plate appearances this season, Nimmo’s .450 on-base percentage leads them all. Let that marinate for a second.
Nimmo’s OBP ranks above that of Mike Trout (.443), Mookie Betts (.436), Freddie Freeman (.424), and Kris Bryant (.418). If that’s not being in good company, I’m not sure what is.
Nimmo’s .428 weighted on-base average (wOBA) not only leads the team, it ranks fifth in the majors (Betts, .490; Trout, .446; Manny Machado, .432; J.D. Martinez, .431). His 180 wRC+ mark ranks third in all of baseball behind only Betts (212) and Trout (189), again using the same 100 minimum appearance parameters.
It’s unlikely that he can sustain this pace and keep up with the aforementioned names above, but simply seeing his name among those superstars has to be doing wonders for Brandon Nimmo’s confidence. That’s half of the battle.
Nimmo’s walk percentage is 17.4, just over two percentage points higher than his mark last season in just over double the plate appearances (215). That walk rate leads the team by a healthy margin, as well (Todd Frazier is second at 15%).
And even though his strikeout rate is still higher than anyone would like to see it (23.9%), again, it bests his 2017 mark; this time by four percentage points (27.9 in 2017).
He’s even begun to hit left-handed pitching a bit more consistently than he has in the past. In seventy career at-bats against lefties, Nimmo is hitting just .200 with a .551 OPS. After starting this season 0-for-12 against southpaws, he’s turned things around on that front as well, going four-for-his-last-nine against left-handers.
As long as Nimmo continues to thrive in the leadoff spot and can keep this on-base pace sustainable, I’m not sure if even when Yoenis Cespedes returns to the lineup it could usurp him.
