SAN FRANCISCO — Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. currently sits atop the fWAR leaderboard, tied with one other player: Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo.
If the season ended today, there would be a fervent debate about the NL MVP Award. Would it go to Acuna, Nimmo or first baseman Pete Alonso? Alonso might not be up there with Nimmo on the WAR leaderboard, but the slugger has hit the second-most home runs in the NL (10) and has driven in 23, the third-most in the league entering Monday
“I would give them co-MVPs to Pete and Nim,” Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor told the Daily News. “They’re doing really great. Nimmo has maybe done a little bit more on both sides of the ball, but Pete has been great.”
Great might be an understatement.
At the plate, Nimmo is having a fantastic start to the season, slashing .350/.455/.500 with a .955 OPS entering Monday. He drove in five runs in one game last week against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the second five RBI-game of his career.
But like Lindor said, he’s performing on the other side of the ball as well. Nimmo’s defense has been an important factor in the Mets’ early success. Maybe more importantly, he’s staying healthy enough when making difficult diving catches and running into walls to make outs.
“It’s been huge,” manager Buck Showalter said. “He’s finishing plays. It’s one thing to get a good break and get there, but he’s finishing plays safely, knock on wood. He’s picking his spots. Sometimes it’s just not there and you have to live to fight another day, but he understands the gravity of different situations and different plays.”
Nimmo leads all center fielders with three outs above average. This metric accounts for both the number of plays made at a certain defensive position and the difficulty of them. Nimmo has prevented two runs this season and has made some dynamic plays in tough ballparks.
“He’s fearless,” Lindor said. “He’s going after everything without hesitation.”
Nimmo came up through the Mets’ minor league system as a center fielder, but the club identified more of a need in the corners so they shifted him in Triple-A. When he went back to center field in the major leagues, the results didn’t come immediately.
“You get used to those reads,” Nimmo said. “Then when they put you back in center, it’s like, alright, these are different reads. So really, you’re going to get the most out of someone by keeping them in a similar position most of the time. It’s hard to explain, but the ball just flies a little bit differently to each of those positions, and in order for it to become muscle memory, and up to you to not have to think about it when it’s hit. You need to see it over and over again.”
Prior to 2021, Nimmo’s defensive metrics in center field specifically didn’t paint the best picture. Between 2017 and 2020, Nimmo posted -12 defensive runs saved and a -4.1 UZR in 2020. Between the injuries and the struggles in center field, some still wondered if Nimmo’s future was in center field.
But Nimmo had battled naysayers throughout his entire career. The expectations were high since he was a first-round pick, but being from Wyoming many thought he wouldn’t pan out as a prospect.
Nimmo persevered through it all. He made a key change to his conditioning in 2020 to capitalize on his foot speed, and he changed his pregame routine in 2022 to stay healthy. Somewhere along the line, he became better defensively than he was when in the minor leagues when he was playing in center field daily.
“Into the 2021 season is when it started to come back to muscle memory,” Nimmo said. “I’m definitely better. I’m definitely better going back on balls, I’m getting better reads on balls as well.”
The key change he made to allow him to optimize his speed in the outfield was doing his cardio conditioning before lifting. This change happened during the COVID-19 shutdown, with Nimmo alternating between endurance runs, sprints and agility before lifting. The change, he said, was “grueling” at first and left his legs feeling wobbly. But he stuck with it, hoping to see results.
“We were like, ‘alright, let’s give this a try,’” Nimmo said. “And when I came back in 2021, I had gained a foot per second on my sprint speed.”
Nimmo has been able to put everything together with the foot speed, the range and the ability to make quality reads.
“In the outfield it’s been an unbelievable transformation,” said Mets utility man Jeff McNeil. “He was decent out there and now he’s elite.”
It’s probably too early in the season to start speculating on postseason awards, but the minute the first pitch is thrown on Opening Day the speculation begins.
A Gold Glove Award wouldn’t define Nimmo as a player or as a person, but it would be some fitting recognition of all the work he put into becoming the player he is today.
“It would definitely be a goal achieved, Nimmo said. “A few years ago, I set out to improve my defense to the point that I could even be in consideration. I think we’ve gotten to that point where people consider me a good defender now l, rather than just someone that’s occupying center field.
“But by no means will it make or break what I think of myself in center field. I think I’m pretty good out there and I think my teammates do as well. And that’s what I care about the most: helping out my teammates and helping us win.”
()