Mets: Brandon Nimmo must avoid the same pitfalls as Michael Conforto

New York Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo is a star in the making. Hopefully, he doesn’t experience the same slump Michael Conforto did a year after doing the same.

There’s an argument that can be made saying New York Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo belonged in the 2018 All-Star Game. As homerish as it is, the argument has some weight to it. Unfortunately, there are far too many outfielders out there as or more deserving of a trip to the midsummer classic.

What scares me about this is how similar it feels to Michael Conforto last year. Only about 365 days ago, Conforto was an All-Star. Now, he’s struggling to stay relevant.

Conforto appeared to breakthrough in a big way during the 2017 season. Though injuries held him back from putting in a full season, the kid still won over fans and made a name for himself across MLB. It appeared that the Mets had a star in the outfield.

A year later, Conforto has struggled mightily. There’s no given reason for it. We can speculate it has something to do with the injury that held him out for the start of the season, but we don’t know for sure. This is as likely as last season being a fluke.

Last week had a Friday the 13th at the end of it and that had me thinking: what’s the worst thing that can happen to the Mets?

On this list, a regression from Nimmo.

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Personally, I don’t think Nimmo belonged in the All-Star Game. He slumped too much in the weeks leading up to it. Whether nagging injuries or overexposure hurt him, the more at-bats Nimmo had the more we saw him show his weaknesses.

Nevertheless, Nimmo is someone I want to see the Mets build with. Even if he stays as a lefty hitter who has to sit against tough southpaws, I see him having a productive big league career. He’s a spark plug at the top of the lineup. On a roster missing speed and spunk, Nimmo overflows with both.

A positive attitude can only get a person so far in their professional career. If Nimmo worked in customer service, he’d end the year with a stack of Employee of the Month Awards. In baseball, the most skilled players succeed.

There’s no denying Nimmo has some things to work on this offseason. Since his head seems to be in the right place, I believe the worst case scenario is a repeat of this season. That’s hardly bad news.

My beliefs don’t guarantee a thing, though. It’s up to Nimmo.

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I can’t say we know for sure how high the ceiling is for him. After witnessing how far Conforto has fallen, it would benefit our hopes to set them lower than our hearts say.