Nimmo’s late start for longevity’s sake
PORT ST. LUCIE — Brandon Nimmo is simply following the blueprint that he says helped keep him on the field last season.
So with roughly half the Mets’ Grapefruit League schedule complete, Nimmo finally appeared in his first game Sunday, receiving two plate appearances over four innings in center field against the Rays.
“I played 151 games [last year] and there’s not a lot of center fielders that do that,” Nimmo said on a day the Mets lost 10-4 at Clover Park. “And so when you find a recipe that works you just kind of want to stick with it, and if it’s not broke don’t fix it. We just felt like my body held up well doing this, we obviously want the atbats and so it’s finding that happy medium.”
Nimmo said he was approached by a member of the team’s performance staff early in camp with the idea of sitting out the first two weeks of exhibition games. It’s a concept he embraced after deciding he wouldn’t participate in the World Baseball Classic.
But while the approach might sound sensible for veteran position players, Mark Canha said he would rather utilize other methods to stay fresh.
“You have got to go case by case just because everybody is different in what they feel they need to be ready for the season,” Canha said. “I think it just depends on the guy.”
Canha prefers to play the exhibition games and instead put restraints on his pregame work, ensuring he doesn’t surpass 100 swings in the batting cage on a given day.
“My problem is I always want to work, work, work and I have had to really pay attention to how many swings I am taking,” Canha said. “That is kind of my approach: play the games, be out there on your feet, get your feet under you and just limit the extra work in the cage. If you let me I’ll sit in there for two hours and take too many swings and then the next day I am sore. ”
On this day Nimmo appeared in midseason form, drawing two walks (on nine pitches) from the leadoff spot, but experienced a glitch, losing a fly ball in the sun for a two-base error.
The entire starting infield is away at the WBC, but Nimmo had the comfort of sandwiching between Starling Marte and Canha, the likely starting outfield for Opening Day.
From Nimmo’s perspective, the opportunity to perform for prospects such as Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio and Mark Vientos outweighs the absences of Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Francisco Lindor and Eduardo Escobar, in particular.
“We’re going to need more than the 25, 26 guys that break camp to win a World
Series,” Nimmo said. “We’re going to need lots of guys by the end of this year, so I think it’s good that those guys are competing and obviously you can see the passion on the faces of those guys that are competing at the World Baseball Classic. They are playing playoff games right now, which is great. They are already bringing up the intensity.”
Nimmo said he’s on a schedule that will culminate with him playing nine innings on consecutive days before spring training concludes, and if he feels the need for extra at-bats against live pitching he could always wander over to the minor league complex.
“I remember Murph would come over and take 10 at-bats when I was in the minor leagues,” Nimmo said, referring to former Mets standout Daniel Murphy. “Maybe it’s my turn to do that a little bit, but it’s more about preserving the legs and making sure that workload is ready to go come Opening Day and can be sustained for six months.”