ARLINGTON, Texas - Brandon Nimmo isn’t framing his exit from Queens as a case of the Mets pointing fingers.
Before facing his former club for the first time Tuesday in the Rangers’ clubhouse, the outfielder said New York’s front office simply decided he and Pete Alonso didn’t fit the direction it wanted to go.
“I honestly think that we just weren’t thought of as the solution moving forward,” Nimmo said. “I don’t think we were blamed for what happened in the past, I think we were just thought of not as the solution going forward. So I tried to not read any more into that than than that.”
The Mets made Nimmo the first big piece to go when they reshaped the roster last winter, sending him to Texas for Marcus Semien in November. Alonso left in free agency soon after, and Jeff McNeil and Edwin Diaz also departed.
From a results standpoint, the moves haven’t looked great so far.
Nimmo has turned in a steady year with the Rangers, hitting .261/.326/.408 across 150 games, and Texas is in the thick of a fight for an American League playoff berth with less than a week left in the regular season.
Alonso has been even louder. He’s sitting on 40 home runs and an American League-leading 108 RBI for the Orioles, and he added to the statement last week by launching his 300th and 301st career homers in his return to Citi Field.
The long view is part of why the Mets made the choices they did. Both Nimmo and Alonso are under contract through 2030, so the front office was weighing more than just the present.
That said, there’s still a long way to go before anyone can call the moves a clean win or loss for New York. Semien has underperformed since arriving, but the Nimmo trade did clear room for two young outfielders, Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing, to get more run this summer.
Nimmo has been watching those two closely, and he came away impressed.
“Benge seems like the real deal, man,” Nimmo said. “What a great player all around.
He broke Pete’s [rookie franchise] record for hits. You do that in your rookie year, hats off to you.
Been able to stay healthy. 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 they have over there, seems like a really bright future.”
Nimmo also said the bigger picture in baseball can change quickly, and he described the Mets as a “dangerous” team even though they’re headed for a second straight year of watching October from home with a high payroll.
That view looked a little sharper later Tuesday night, when the Mets beat the Rangers 6-3 in the opener of the series. Texas is trying to hold off the Astros in the AL West, making every game down the stretch matter.
“It looks like they’re trying to finish on a good note, and that’s always something that’s good, especially with young guys,” Nimmo said. “I know when I was over there and we went through some tough years, finishing on a good note always made the young guys feel better going into the offseason, about what was ahead for next year.”
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