New York Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo came into Friday night’s game in Atlanta sporting a .150/.306/.275 slash line with a nightmarish 46% strikeout rate (23 in 50 plate appearances). Not ideal, by any means.
Nimmo’s first at-bat against Atlanta right-hander Kyle Wright resulted in a 105.1 mph rocket that landed in the Braves’ bullpen for his second home run of the season, putting the Mets ahead 2-1 early on. Oh, we’ll take that.
After experiencing a slightly unexpected power surge last year — his first full season in the majors — with 17 home runs, there were a handful of baseball folks who wondered if that level of production was sustainable for a player who racked up just 40 homers over eight MiLB seasons.
Nimmo taking Wright’s 3-1, right-down-the-middle four-seamer yard must have felt outstanding after such a tumultuous start to 2019 and could bode well for the Wyomingian’s continued progress. Confidence goes a long way in this game.
Brandon’s gorgeous bunt single with one on and none out in the fourth led to the Mets tacking on four more runs, and his leadoff double in the eighth capped off what felt like a hallmark night in Nimmo’s turnaround.
After the game, Brandon Nimmo spoke to the media (quotes via Mike Puma of the New York Post) and seemed more pleased with his contributions to the Mets’ big fourth inning than his personal successes, calling his bunt “my most important hit [on Friday night]”. As for his power display and proper pitch recognition on Friday, Nimmo seemed fairly pleased with that, as well.
“I felt like today I capitalized better on the pitches that were in the zone […]. I did get a couple of pitches in the zone and I hit them well rather than fouling them off or swinging through them, which I have been doing mostly,” Nimmo said. “I was glad to be able to do that and find the barrel a couple of times.”
Nimmo breaking out of this treacherous slump and getting back to being the player whose .385 weighted on-base average ranked ninth in Major League Baseball last season and 149 weighted runs-created plus rating ranked fourth would be a boon for this Mets squad.
And the fact that his big night came hitting out of the eight-hole, I wouldn’t be against seeing how Nimmo responds to a prolonged stretch of residing in the lower half of the batting order.
Amed Rosario (.268/.301/.390 over 269 plate appearances leading off last year; that OBP isn’t all that appealing but his .321 overall mark so far this year is a bit more encouraging) and Jeff McNeil (2-for-5, double, two RBI out the leadoff spot on Friday) appear to be capable of handling themselves the top of the order.
And with Pete Alonso simply clobbering in the two-hole, more bodies on base (Nimmo’s specialty) could be quite beneficial to this team’s already impressive offense (their 81 runs scored in 2019 is good for fourth-best in MLB).
Nimmo has slowly been coming out of his early-season funk, as evidenced by his 7-for-18 line with five extra-base hits (three doubles, two homers) and five runs batted in over his last five games (21 plate appearances), and his 3-for-4, two-RBI night in a 6-2 win over the Braves is about an encouraging performance as anyone could have hoped for.
As Brandon Nimmo goes, so do the New York Mets. Get him going, and this team’s productivity at the plate (117 wRC+; sixth in baseball) could be sent into hyperdrive.
