The Brandon Nimmo chants that rolled through Citi Field on Tuesday said plenty about how Mets fans are feeling right now. They also missed the bigger picture.
Yes, Nimmo has been doing what he usually does for Texas, and yes, Marcus Semien has been a mess in Flushing. But the trade was never supposed to be judged only by who posts the prettier stat line in 2026. It was about clearing a long-term lane in the outfield, and the Mets are already seeing why that mattered.
Tuesday’s 16-12 loss offered a sharp snapshot of the upside. A.J.
Ewing went 4-for-4 with a towering home run out of the leadoff spot. Carson Benge finished 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored.
Juan Soto added a three-run homer and turned in one of the best defensive plays of his career. That’s the kind of outfield core the Mets were trying to build.
Nimmo’s numbers in Texas are solid enough: .255 with eight home runs, 32 RBI and a .732 OPS in 86 games, good for 1.5 Wins Above Replacement. That puts him on pace to match the 2.9 WAR he put up last season in New York.
But Semien has been far worse, hitting .214 with nine home runs, 19 RBI and a .613 OPS while sitting at -0.6 WAR. He has been a drag on the Mets.
Still, the point of the move was never to swap Nimmo for a cleaner one-for-one replacement. The Mets wanted to avoid blocking a spot for younger outfielders, and Benge and Ewing are the proof of concept.
Benge was given a chance out of camp and took it. Entering play on Thursday, he was hitting .265 with 11 home runs, 37 RBI and a .737 OPS, producing 1.6 WAR. That’s already slightly ahead of Nimmo, and it comes with the feel of a player on the rise.
Ewing has been the bigger surprise. The Mets did not expect him to be ready this quickly, but he forced the issue by tearing the cover off the ball at AAA Syracuse.
He got the call in May after Luis Robert Jr. landed on the injured list with back issues, and the Mets have been thrilled with what they’ve gotten from the 21-year-old. In 53 games, Ewing is batting .279 with seven home runs, 24 RBI and an .812 OPS.
Add in his elite defense in center field, and he has generated 1.8 WAR in just under two months.
That kind of production is exactly why the Nimmo deal made sense for the organization’s future. If Nimmo had stayed, the Mets likely would have needed him to shift more toward DH work to make room for both Benge and Ewing, and Nimmo was reportedly reluctant to do that because he prefers playing the field. Without the trade, Ewing may not even be in the majors right now.
The path to the deal was narrow, too. The Mets had to find a team willing to absorb the rest of Nimmo’s contract and a player willing to waive his no-trade clause. Texas was the fit, sending Semien back to New York.
There are plenty of decisions from the offseason that deserve criticism, including the way the Mets handled Pete Alonso’s production at first base and the heavy reliance on bounce-back bets for the 2026 roster. Trading Nimmo is not one of them. It opened the door for Soto, Ewing and Benge to become the outfield foundation, and that is the kind of alignment the Mets can actually build on.
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