Meet the Mets: Nick Plummer a welcome addition in Flushing

I miss Dominic Smith too, but it's not necessarily Nick Plummer's fault that he got sent down on Tuesday, May 31; the day after Plummer undoubtedly earned the approval of New York Mets manager Buck Showalter with a 3 for 4, four RBI day on Monday, May 30 against the Washington Nationals. 

In his junior year of high school at Michigan’s Brother Rice High School Plummer hit a ridiculous .573 as a regular player. Then in 2015, his senior season, Plummer would be recognized as the National High School Player of the Year. Plummer would forgo his commitment to the University of Kentucky and go on to be drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals with the 23rd pick of the first round of the 2015 MLB Draft.

After signing for 2.3 million, Plummer would struggle throughout the Cardinal's minor league system, including battling wrist injuries and sparsely finding success until just last year in 2021, when he would set a Springfield Cardinals (AA) record for reaching base safely in 33 consecutive games and hit .283. 

Mets outfielder Nick Plummer didn't begin to thrive as a professional until 2021, six seasons after he was drafted

Plummer would soon be promoted to AAA. Despite experiencing much success in 2021, the Cardinals declined to add Plummer to their 40 man roster, and he responded by electing free agency. 

A former top prospect, the Mets would take a chance on Plummer in November of 2021. He did decently at AAA Syracuse, hitting .250 with 21 RBIs in 88 at-bats. He would finally get his first real MLB opportunity on Monday, May 29th, replacing a sidelined combination of Travis Jankowski and Brandon Nimmo. 

Plummer wasted no time making an impression, registering a home run as his first Major League hit and leading Mets play by play announcer Gary Cohen to wittingly say it “makes sense a guy named Plummer would have success in Flushing.” Plummer joins an exclusive list of six other Mets to register home runs as their first Major League hits, including former Mets pitcher and current pitching coach Jeremy Hefner!

In addition to his hopeful bat, Plummer brings plus defense, another reason the Mets perhaps chose to keep him on the roster over Smith.

From scouring through social media one can see that Nick Plummer collects mint condition copies of his rookie card, a hopeful indication that he believes those cards will become very valuable one day. He also appears to have a pet dog.  

Regardless of Plummer's career trajectory, Mets fans can only be grateful for this team's depth. Whenever one star player underproduces or goes down with an injury, there’s a new reliable face who can immediately step in and perform.