This Important New York Met Needs to Get Going

In the first half of the season, Brandon Nimmo was the best and most reliable hitter in the Mets lineup. He slotted in anywhere between 1-3 in the lineup and produced quality numbers.

Nimmo had a team leading 134 WRC+ and .815 OPS.

The outfielder’s first half stats were interesting. He did not start the year well. Heading into May, he had an OPS of .708. He was a below average hitter and was not hitting for power. He only had 8 extra base hits in 28 games.

Nimmo improved in May, but he was still basically a league average hitter. He had a .751 OPS. We are in an era when batting average does not hold a lot of value. However, it is disconcerting to see Nimmo hit for an average in the low .200’s. A batting average that low requires Nimmo to become a real power hitter to be successful, and it is unclear if Nimmo can sustainably be a successful power hitter.

Like many Mets, Nimmo got hot in June. He was excellent that month, with a .315 average and a 1.004 OPS. In June, Nimmo had 13 XBH. He struck out the least he has in any month. Nimmo was a huge part of the success New York had in June.

Mets fans hoped that the rest of Nimmo’s year would be similar to his June. However, since June, Nimmo has been even worse than he was in the first two months of the season.

Nimmo has seemed clueless at the plate recently. Since the All Star break, Nimmo is hitting .152 with a .474 OPS. He has no homers after hitting 16 in the first half.

Nimmo is clearly trying to fix things on the fly. He is caught between two minds at the plate. Sometimes, Nimmo comes to the plate with a very defensive approach, like he has in the past when he struggled.

With that defensive approach, the best case scenario is that Nimmo slaps a hit to the opposite field. But usually it means that Nimmo fouls off a couple of pitches before eventually getting struck out or out on weak contact.

Nimmo also sometimes tries to do too much and fix his slump in one swing, taking way too big of a swing and attempting to hit a pitch out of the ballpark. That leads to him missing very hittable pitches.

Especially by his standards, Nimmo has had a bad year. His OPS is, by far, the lowest of his career. He is well on pace to strike out more than he ever has.

It is very difficult to get out of a slump. Nimmo wants to break out of it so badly that he overthinks and overworks instead of just doing what has made him a successful hitter for almost ten years.