Mets' Brandon Nimmo is as hot as the weather
Brandon Nimmo of the New York Mets hits a double in the top of the first inning against the San Francisco Giants. Credit: Getty Images/Lachlan Cunningham
SAN FRANCISCO — It’s not too often you hear about a 10-year veteran maturing, but last year, mired in a brutal July in which he batted .188, Brandon Nimmo figured something needed to change.
Or rather, maybe things needed to go back to where they were.
“Last year, I think after the All-Star break, when I didn’t make the All-Star Game, I felt like, ‘I’m not good enough, I need to do more,’ ” Nimmo said Friday after going 2-for-5 with two RBIs in the Mets’ 8-1 win over the Giants. “I think that got me in trouble and then I wasn’t being myself there for a few weeks and that kind of tail spun.”
But the Nimmo of then isn’t the Nimmo of now. When he saw Juan Soto’s slow start earlier this season, he reminded the slugger to stay the course because the weather eventually would warm up and balls would fly out. When he went through his own struggles then, he told himself the same thing. And lately, Nimmo has been one of the Mets’ most consistent offensive contributors.
Going into Saturday, he had a .265/.331/.469 slash line with 19 homers and had reached base in 18 straight games. He was batting .328 in that span with four doubles, four homers, 16 RBIs, 15 runs, seven walks and five steals.
“I feel like [I’ve seen the development] in how he’s handled those stretches when things aren’t going his way,” manager Carlos Mendoza said Saturday. “I feel like last year, he had a couple of them where it took him a lot longer than he wanted it, we wanted it. And I feel like this year, he’s been pretty consistent. Every hitter is going to go through stretches where it’s hard, but I feel like he’s handled those a lot better for some reason. He’s sticking to his routine, he’s very detail-oriented and it’s working for him. Obviously, he’s a lot more mature. It’s not the first time where he’s going through stretches like this, but he’s been solid.”
Ironically, a lot of it involves becoming more confident with failure . . . to an extent.
“I’m not going to be successful all the time, but that’s OK,” Nimmo said. “If I do the little things right on a daily basis, then I should be OK in the long run. Just trusting that process.
“ . . . We go back and we look at, OK, what are the expected numbers? How are you chasing? All of that stuff. And when we look at that stuff, it’s looking pretty good, and so then we just stay the course. We make small adjustments along the way, understanding that every pitcher is different and every team is different.
“I think that’s been the key for me — saying that who I am is good enough and let’s go out there and compete with what we’ve got tonight.”
Gilbert getting noticed
Drew Gilbert might very well force the Mets’ hand. While president of baseball operations David Stearns said Friday that he was comfortable continuing to use Jeff McNeil and Tyrone Taylor in centerfield, Gilbert, 24, is becoming hard to miss. The outfielder hit two homers Friday in Triple-A Syracuse’s 8-2 over the Omaha Storm Chasers, his third multi-homer game in the last month. He has a .248/.351/.445 slash line, 12 homers and 46 RBIs in 78 games with Syracuse.
“Drew is doing a tremendous job, and I think, to his credit, he’s probably putting himself on the radar a little bit and he deserves a lot of credit for that, both offensively and defensively,” Stearns said Friday. “He’s taken a step forward, I’d say, over the last month or two.”
Extra bases
Gregory Soto was expected to join the team at some point Saturday and will be activated Sunday, Mendoza said . . . Tylor Megill (right elbow sprain) threw a bullpen session Thursday and will throw another Sunday . . . The Mets signed 18 players from the 2025 first-year player draft and nine non-drafted free agents.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
