Brandon Nimmo was the first amateur drafted by the Mets under Sandy Alderson’s watch. He was a skinny 18-year-old from Wyoming who was risky in that he simply hadn’t played very much competitive baseball given where he was from.
Nimmo has always been very young in every professional league he’s played in, and he seemed to be immediately challenged over his first year of professional baseball. He got his feet wet in the Gulf Coast League and in Rookie Ball in 2011 before transferring short-season Single-A Brooklyn in 2012. He didn’t put up eye popping numbers for the Cyclones that year – he hit .248/.372/.406 that season – but he showed modest improvement when he moved on the the Savannah Sand Gnats in 2013, his first full season team in his professional career.
It wasn’t until 2014 Nimmo began to come into his own. He tore up the Florida State League, posting a. 906 OPS in the notorious pitchers league, and earned a promotion to Binghamton mid-year last year, where he struggled a bit in finishing his season.
Still, it was a successful season for Nimmo as he continued his long journey to the big leagues. He credited his off-season work at the Pirates training facility in Bradenton, Florida for his improved speed, stamina, and overall strength for the success he had last year.
He was off to a good start once again this year before injuring his knee 34 games into the season. Fortunately, the injury he sustained was not season-ending, as he is currently rehabbing the knee at the team’s minor league complex in Port St. Lucie.
Nimmo ultimately projects to be a good, middle-to-bottom-of-the-order kind of hitter. He has a good eye at the plate, he has decent speed and is extra-base power is starting to come around. He ultimately projects to be more of a corner outfielder, although he has played a lot of center field as a professional. The fact he has had knee problems furthers that notion.
With that said, Nimmo could eventually evolve into a valuable trade chip as the Mets seek to acquire offense for the big league roster. And, Andy Martino of the Daily News says some Mets people are looking at Michael Conforto as the one who will eventually make it to the big leagues, so Nimmo could in fact get dealt as soon as this year should an attractive circumstance present itself.
That’s not to say it will happen this season, especially since Nimmo is injured with no specific timetable to return. It’s hard to imagine this front office would trade a top prospect and former first-round pick for any kind of rental, even if the return could be a, “final piece,” type. And, it’s this regime’s first ever draft pick, so it’s conceivable they may want to see him graduate to the big leagues here, rather than elsewhere.
Still, at some point the Mets are going to have to find more offense, and if they’re going to remain reluctant to trade any of their top-shelf pitching prospects (which stands to reason), they have to consider dipping into another area of their farm system for help. Despite the injury, Nimmo could be a key to acquiring what the Mets really need for long-term offensive help.
Whether that ultimately happens or not remains to be seen. It’s always risky to deal top prospects, and the Mets always seem to struggle to strike gold when acquiring talent from the outside.
But sometimes risk is a part of the game of baseball.
Just Mets 