Brandon Nimmo's statistics since the Mets lineup change that moved him to third

A lot has been made about the improvements of Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor since the lineup shuffle. What about Brandon Nimmo? His change was the most drastic of all. Alonso has plenty of experience hitting second. Lindor was a regular leadoff hitter in Cleveland. Let’s not forget about the longtime New York Mets leadoff hitter. He shouldn’t have to suffer for their gain.

The offense has undoubtedly improved since the changes were made. Although the threesome haven’t all been together in each game, we do now have a sample size of 19 featuring Nimmo in the three slot. Has it helped? Hurt? Does it have anything to do with his spot in the lineup?

The Mets aren’t getting as much out of Brandon Nimmo in the three spot as they wished

Nimmo went from batting .216/.363/.399 as the leadoff hitter to becoming a .237/.318/.355 hitter in the three spot. Everything but the average is down and it could have a lot to do with a change in approach. In those 85 plate appearances, Nimmo has struck out 31 times. More than a third of his chances have ended with a strike three call against him. It’s a growing problem for the club’s former leadoff man.

Walks have been much tougher to come by, too. Nimmo has drawn one in June versus 9 strikeouts. Since moving to the number three spot, he has one multi-walk game. He drew a pair of bases on balls against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first game of the doubleheader. When he was hitting leadoff, in a larger sample of around 100 plate appearances, Nimmo had five games of 2+ walks. For what it’s worth, all of them came in April.

The RBI drop off might be the most disappointing of all for Nimmo out of the three spot. He was a machine there, driving in 27 as a leadoff hitter and now only 5 while batting third. His 31 strikeouts in 85 chances is a near match for the 35 he had in 182 plate appearances as the leadoff man.

If the end result is a Mets win, there probably isn’t a change to be made. But what about swapping Alonso and Nimmo? The only problem here is the Mets then have righties Alonso and J.D. Martinez hitting back-to-back which is a minor issue. It’s like having a pimple on your back for school picture day.

In some ways, having Nimmo hit behind Alonso is kind of like setting up for two leadoff men if Pete clears the bases with a home run. It’s an understandable approach. Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked so well for Nimmo. The large number of left-handed pitchers they’ve faced recently hasn’t been the primary issue as he has a better OPS against southpaws this season, .739 vs. .720.

The new Mets lineup remains a testing ground. It got Lindor hot. It improved Alonso. We’re still waiting to reap some rewards for Nimmo.