For the first time since getting traded by the Mets during the offseason, Brandon Nimmo gets a chance to play against his former team.
With New York in Texas for a three-game series against the Rangers, Nimmo was finally able to share his thoughts on playing for and leaving the Mets, what’s gone wrong for New York this season and recently, as well as the Pete Alonso situation at Citi Field that took the baseball world by storm last week.
To kick things off, though, Nimmo expressed excitement over playing his old club, a series that he circled early on after joining the Rangers and one that comes at a time when his team, at 78-78, is in first place in the AL West and leading the Houston Astros by one game.
“I obviously knew this series was coming up and it’s not like it surprised me or anything, so it’s gonna be fun to see those guys again and fun to play against them on the field,” Nimmo said. “It’s gonna be interesting.”
The Mets, of course, have already been eliminated from playoff contention after one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history, but they’ll do their best to play spoiler against Nimmo and the Rangers and end the year on a high note.
In fact, New York has actually played much better since its fire sale at the trade deadline, which is something Nimmo has noticed and is not taking lightly.
“I think it’s been a tale of two stories,” he said. “I think that the team in the beginning, from what I’ve seen from the outside, is much different than the team that they are now. Not just because of the trade deadline, but they seem to be playing better baseball now and so I think it’s a real formidable team over there.
“For us, we’re looking to really go play some good baseball against them tonight because we know that they’re very dangerous. It was obviously not the way that they drew it up for things to start, but that’s baseball. You can’t predict the future.”
It’s true, at 71-85 on Sept. 22, this wasn’t where the Mets pictured themselves before the season started. After trading Nimmo and moving on from a core that wasn’t able to get it done over the last few years, including Alonso, who they let walk in free agency, David Stearns and the Mets still had a plan to compete in 2026.
That plan included a bunch of fresh faces, some old and some new like Carson Benge, who made the team out of spring training and has been a ROTY candidate, as well as A.J. Ewing, who emerged as the team’s everyday center fielder and added a spark when New York desperately needed one.
“Benge seems like the real deal. What a great player all around,” Nimmo said. “…Ewing, seems like he’s got a lot of tools and seems like a great player – obviously playing center field is a really hard thing to do and he’s doing a great job of that.
“From what I’ve seen from the young guys that they have over there, it seems like a really bright future, so I think that they definitely have that hammered down and seems like they’re doing great and good things to continue to come from them.”
From that aspect, moving on from Nimmo, who has four years remaining on his eight-year, $162 million contract, made sense and has worked out for the Mets.
Even Nimmo understands that.
“I honestly just think we weren’t thought of as the solution moving forward,” he said, referring to himself and Alonso. “I don’t think we were blamed for what happened in the past, I think we were just thought of as not the solution going forward. I tried not reading any more into that than that… For me, I didn’t look at it like ‘hey, we blame you guys’ that’s not how I looked at it.”
But while the Nimmo trade has been, for the most part, a clean break, the Alonso situation still looks like a bad breakup.
That was obviously on full display at Citi Field recently when Alonso and the Baltimore Orioles came to Queens for a three-game set which drew boisterous crowds all three nights and came to a head when Alonso hit his 300th career home run to tie the game in the ninth inning.
“There’s a lot of people that love Pete and there’s a lot of people that love what he did for that Mets organization,” Nimmo said about the circumstances. “…People are gonna go watch those franchise guys and root for them.”
Nimmo was also in awe of his former teammate’s performance during that series, but wasn’t surprised by it as he saw it time and time again with the Mets.
“I know Pete and he lives for those moments and there’s very, very, very few people that can live for those moments and come through in them and Pete’s one of them,” he said. “I think [the home run in] Milwaukee probably solidified that for most Mets fans, but I’ve seen it time and time again.”
He continued: “For me, I thought it was a really cool experience for them and the Mets fans and I just think it’s so Pete that like he would go back and do that and put on a show for the fans.”
Part of the reason why fans reacted the way they did during Alonso’s homecoming is because of Stearns' plan to replace him and the lack of production coming from first base this season. The other part was to show Alonso the love that they felt during his time with the Mets – the same love that they showed Nimmo, who spoke about what it’s like playing in New York.
“This is completely different,” he said, referring to the media and public scrutiny. “How much is looked into every single day and the exposure of every single day rather than kind of taking things in stride from month to month. [In New York], it’s like did you do it today or did you not? And you have to own up to that and it’s something that I learned really early on, way back in Brooklyn. I grew up in the system and I figured it out really early on, but when you come from other places and you go into it, it’s completely different.
“Playing in New York is a different animal and it’s good, it’s a really great thing and I think that the New York market is awesome and it’s a great place to win and I developed great relationships there, but it is not for everyone. That is for sure."
