After going 0-3 with three strikeouts against lefty Patrick Corbin to extend an ugly early-season slump on Saturday, the Mets sat Brandon Nimmo against the right-handed ace Max Scherzer on Sunday. To that point, Nimmo had been just 2-for-26 with an alarming 17 strikeouts.
However, Nimmo was brought into the game as part of a double switch in the top of the fifth, and flew out in his first opportunity in the bottom of the inning against Scherzer. Facing Scherzer again in the seventh with two on and one out, he lined a double into right field to cut the lead to 12-2, igniting a comeback attempt.
In his final plate appearance of the game against righty Wander Suero, Nimmo lined out to right field. After a surprisingly rough start to the season, it was good to see Nimmo have a few quality at-bats including his first extra-base-hit of the season, and of course with no strikeouts in those three at-bats. Hopefully, this is a sign that Nimmo is due to break out of whatever he’s been going through lately sometime soon.
Per Tim Britton of The Athletic, the 26-year-old is staying positive and still has a ton of confidence in himself.
“Whether it’s right or wrong, I have a lot of confidence in what I did last year. With last year under the belt, I know that I’m completely capable — and not just at being adequate but at being highly successful at this level. I think it’s just a matter of time. Just keep working hard. As long as I prepare and work hard, eventually it’s going to turn around,” Nimmo said after Sunday’s 12-9 loss to the Nationals.
Britton also added that Nimmo spent a multitude of hours in the video room trying to analyze his swing and stance to see if he noticed any glaring errors, but Nimmo said that he didn’t find anything so he didn’t change anything going into Sunday’s game.
There may be some luck not going in Nimmo’s favor, although there’s definitely a lot more to the story than just bad luck. Still, his BABIP sits at just .250, and he’s still posted a Nimmo-like 13.9% walk rate. He needs to cut down on his strikeout rate, which is still an ugly 47.2%, and with Nimmo’s patience and history, that number is very likely going to even out as time goes on.
Hopefully his better at-bats on Sunday are a sign that he’s coming around. For now, he really just needs to keep getting at-bats to get back in the rhythm he was in last year when he batted .263/.404/.483 and had the second best wRC+ (149) in the National League.
Mets fans shouldn’t be too worried a rough nine-game stretch. Nimmo achieved his success last year despite some similarly bad stretches along the way; it just looks worse when it happens to start a season and that’s all you have to work with. If there’s anyone on this team that can work their way out of a slump, it’s Brandon Nimmo.
