3 common Brandon Nimmo takes we can bury forever

How good of a baseball player is Brandon Nimmo? Ask a group of New York Mets fans this question and you’re going to get a wide variety of answers.

Nimmo was a first-round draft pick that didn’t come to the major leagues with as much hype as many others in the last decade or so. He was in a part-time role for his first two seasons but in 2018, played his way into the starting lineup.

There were always controversies with him of the baseball sort. His style of play was a little different from the norm. Questions about those abilities created a few takes about Nimmo that it’s time to bury forever.

Brandon Nimmo is nothing more than a fourth outfielder on the Mets

The “Brandon Nimmo is a fourth outfielder” takes ran rampant even after his 2018 season which saw him slash .263/.404/.483 in 535 plate appearances. To this day the only year where he reached 400 trips to the plate, it was a season of hope to showcase just how productive he could be in an everyday role.

Unfortunately, injuries limited him the following year. He was healthy in 2020 but the rest of the world wasn’t. Then in 2021, Nimmo missed a lot of time, too. Limited to 386 plate appearances, the happiest man in baseball slashed .292/.401/.437. It’s actually quite close to what he did in the shortened 2020 season when he was a .280/.404/.484 hitter in 225 opportunities.

I’m throwing a lot of numbers at you but it’s pretty plain to see that Nimmo is not a fourth outfielder. A .266/.393/.445 lifetime hitter with a 131 OPS+, the man is an untraditional leadoff guy. He won’t hit for much power and he isn’t going to steal a ton of bases. Nimmo, instead, uses his strength to work the count and get on base by any means necessary. As he showed in 2018 with a league-leading 22 hit by pitches, he’s willing to do a lot.

The Mets should platoon Brandon Nimmo because he can’t hit lefties

This was true at one time but not to the great extent some made it out to be. In 2018, Nimmo batted .234/.351/.391 versus southpaws. Against righties, he was an expectedly better hitter with a .275/.424/.521 slash line.

There’s nothing unusual about a left-handed player putting up worse numbers against a left-handed pitcher. In fact, if he’s doing the opposite, something may be wrong. We then can begin to question not why he succeeds versus lefties but why he’s failing against righties.

Now 439 plate appearances against lefties into his career, Nimmo has become much better. Lifetime, he has hit .260/.378/.399 against them. It’s lower than the .269/.398/.462 against righties but far closer than I think some stubborn fans may realize. The only major difference between the two is power. And again, there’s nothing unusual about this.

Not much has been publicly discussed about what Nimmo has done to become a more well-rounded baseball player. Previously viewed as a fourth outfielder and at best the left-handed part of a platoon because of his inability to face certain pitchers, things have changed.

Nimmo can succeed against righties and lefties. The preference for righties may remain, however, if there’s a lefty on the mound, there is little cause for concern. He has learned to handle himself.