After Francisco Lindor got off to a slow start to the season, Carlos Mendoza reconfigured the Mets’ lineup and moved the shortstop to the leadoff spot and the results have been dramatic. But the change hasn't got Brandon Nimmo – who was moved down from first to third – going at the plate.
“He’s off,” manager Carlos Mendoza said ahead of Friday’s series opener against the San Diego Padres. “He’s going through a stretch here where it’s not easy for him.
“... But he’ll continue to work, he’s too good of a player. He’ll get through it. He’s just got to continue to grind.”
On the season, Nimmo’s .708 OPS in 277 plate appearances is 89 points lower than his career low for a full season from 2017. But he’s still got a slightly above-average OPS+ at 109 and is beating out Lindor (113 to 109) on weighted runs created plus.
“It’s terrible,” Nimmo said Friday afternoon, via Newsday. “I don’t know. I’m trying to figure it out.”
Nimmo’s season isn’t bad, just not up to his normal standards and has taken a hit after a rough start to June as has just eight hits in 37 at-bats (.216) with a .599 OPS and has walked twice to 14 strikeouts through nine games.
“It’s definitely something that’s unacceptable and I’m frustrated by it," Nimmo said, via The New York Post. "It’s not up to my standards, but it’s part of baseball and the only thing I can control is to just keep grinding every day and do what I can.”
Nimmo, who got hit in the head by a pitch on May 24 against San Francisco, said he has gone through further concussion testing in recent days with his slump beginning around that same time. He passed initial testing after being hit, has no symptoms presently and says he feels fine, but is undergoing further evaluation to continue to "check all the boxes" after Mendoza told him about the experiences of the Yankees' Anthony Rizzo last year.
When it comes to determining the source of his recent struggles at the plate the manager pointed to timing.
“When your timing is off, I think the swing decisions are probably he’s a tick late,” Mendoza said. “And he’s probably not seeing the ball out of the hand as he normally would. And then there’s swing and misses and probably a little bit more chase or passive approach at times.
“But I think it comes down to the timing. And this is something that he knows, he’s aware, he’s working on it.”
On the year, Nimmo’s chase rate on pitches outside the zone is up to 22.7 percent (a 2.8 percent increase from a season ago). In fact, Nimmo has posted about a 19.9 percent chase rate or higher in each of the last three seasons after having a chase rate of below 18.1 percent in each of the four years prior.
More concerning is the whiff rate, which at 26.1 percent is the highest it has been in the last five seasons and is up from 22 percent last year and 19.6 percent in 2022. And Nimmo is making contact on just 81 percent of his swings at balls in the zone, down 3.3 percent from 2023 and 4.9 percent from 2022.
“Swinging and missing more than I’ve ever [done] in my career,” Nimmo told reporters ahead of Friday's game. “Throwing paint against the wall to see what sticks. It’s a process sometimes, it doesn’t just show up overnight. It’s frustrating. It’s really frustrating. It’s weird that after eight years you can still be experiencing new things. But it’s just the way baseball is.”
There are also some encouraging signs in the Baseball Savant advanced stats: Nimmo’s barrel percentage (11.2), average exit velocity (92.1), hard hit percentage (49.1), expected slugging percentage (.465) and expected weighted on-base average (.371) are all the highest he’s posted.
He is striking out more than he has in the recent past (at a 26 percent clip) but his 12.6 walk percentage is up from each of the last two seasons and is in the ninth percentile across MLB.
And there is the possibility Nimmo is in his own head a bit too much and overthinking it at the plate.
“It’s like the old Yogi Berra saying that you can’t think and hit at the same time. It’s true," the outfielder said. "But that's where we’re at. I understand it’s really bad, and I’m doing everything in my power to be better, but sometimes unfortunately it doesn’t happen overnight.”
And perhaps Mendoza’s latest lineup reconfiguration could help him, too, as Nimmo is now in the two-spot behind Lindor and in front of J.D. Martinez, after batting third behind Pete Alonso. But the manager believes Nimmo getting his timing down at the plate will matter more than where the 31-year-old outfielder bats in the order.
“When he’s on time, he’s a pretty special hitter,” he said. “Right now, he’s off.”