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One question Mets fans were curious about going into the 2023 is whether the new rules that were designed to ignite more basestealing, would do exactly that with leadoff man Brandon Nimmo?

Nimmo, despite being in the 92nd percentile for sprint speed, stole only three bases and was caught twice during the 2022 season. His career-high for stolen bases was nine in 2018 and he was caught stealing six times that year.

During spring training, Nimmo was didn’t sound like a guy that was prepping to make any big changes in his baserunning.

“We will take advantage of those situations, but we don’t want to just be throwing away outs on the basepaths, either, because we have a really great offense,” Nimmo said. “The most important thing for me is to continue being me and get on base for those guys.”

Nimmo set a career-high with four walks in the Mets’ 9-3 win over the Marlins in their home opener on Friday. He also stole second base in the first inning after walking in front of Starling Marte. It was Nimmo’s second stolen base of the season, a feat he didn’t reach until September in the 2022 season.

Even Nimmo becoming a 10-15 stolen base guy with a high rate of success would another element to the Mets offense at the top of the lineup.

Big Drip 

The New York Mets rotation has been a huge mark to start the season with Max Scherzer underperforming and injuries forcing David Peterson and Tylor Megill into early action. Luckily for the Mets, Megill was good again on Friday against the Marlins in the home opener. The Big Drip became the first Mets starter with a scoreless outing in their 6-0 win at Citi Field.

Megill had already been named the Opening Day starting pitcher for Triple-A Syracuse when he found out that Justin Verlander was going on the injured list. Megill quickly went from minor league starter to sliding into the Mets rotation which included their third game of the season and home opener. Megill got the win in his first start of the season allowing two runs and striking out seven in five innings against the Marlins. The 27-year-old was even better on Friday against the Marlins:

6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K

Megill’s outing is even more impressive when you note that he took the second-hardest hit ball of the day (107.9 mph) as a liner off his ankle in the fourth inning, but stayed in and faced the minimum the rest of the way. Per Elias, Megill joined Tom Seaver as the only pitchers in Mets history to throw at least six scoreless innings and allow three hits of fewer in a home opener.

Spotless Defense

The 2023 Mets became the first team in franchise history to not make an error through the first eight games of a season. The Mets entered Friday as the only team in baseball besides the St. Louis Cardinals that had not committed an error this season.

The Mets defense will continue to be an important part of their success in 2023 as they try to help out a pitching staff that has already dealt with the injury bug.