Brandon Nimmo has done plenty right since arriving from Queens in the Marcus Semien deal, and nobody around the Rangers is eager to pile on. Skip Schumaker, his teammates, and the fanbase have plenty of praise for the way he’s carried himself, and there’s no shortage of examples to point to, from his strong all-around play to the home run robbery of Andrew Benintendi in the White Sox series.
But the timing of this stretch is hard to ignore.
The Rangers are trying to hang around in the AL race with an average roster, and they need their highest-paid hitters to deliver. Nimmo, who hit 3-for-4 with a homer in Saturday’s 5-3 loss to the Brewers, is in the middle of a three-week slump that has arrived at exactly the wrong moment. It’s his first extended dry spell of the season, and Texas can’t afford many of those now.
Since August 11, Nimmo has gone 9-for-62 with one home run and four RBIs. In that span, his batting average has fallen from .278 to .262, and his OPS has dipped from .793 to .750. For a player batting cleanup nearly every day, that’s a steep slide.
The Rangers’ top bats have also had a habit of taking turns carrying the offense. When one of Nimmo, Seager, or Langford gets rolling, another one or two often cool off. That pattern is much less workable with Texas now 2 games behind the Astros in the AL West and 2 games back of the Guardians for the final wild-card spot.
What makes this slump stand out is that it doesn’t look like the earlier mini-dips Nimmo survived. Before, he was at least hitting the ball hard and getting buried by bad luck.
This time, the contact itself has slipped. Outside of Saturday’s homer, he hasn’t been driving line drives at defenders so much as coming up late on low-to-mid-90s fastballs, popping out to left field, and striking out.
He’s also collected just three extra-base hits during the slump.
The power numbers tell the same story. Nimmo has 14 home runs after posting 24, 23, and 25 in his last three seasons with the Mets.
He’s projected to finish with 16 this year. His RBI total has also fallen from an average of 83 to 51 and counting, with 26 games left.
None of that has changed the way people talk about him, and maybe that’s part of the problem - or part of why the slump has slipped under the radar. Nimmo is an easy guy to like, but the Rangers need more than good vibes now.
They need production. His 3-for-4 night was at least a step in the right direction, and Texas needs that to keep going if it wants to stay in the playoff chase.
In Other News...
Rangers Fans May Be Stuck Tracking Another TV Switch Soon
Local sports viewing in Dallas-Fort Worth keeps getting reshuffled, and Rangers fans are already familiar with the churn. After leaving Victory Plus, the club moved its broadcasts to the BZZR app, while the Mavericks have taken a different route by putting their games back on free TV through a multi-year agreement with TEGNA. The latest shift comes from the Stars, who are set to announce Amazon Prime as their primary local TV partner starting this season.
The backdrop to all of it is the mess left behind by Victory Plus, which owes both the Stars and Rangers significant unpaid fees. For Rangers fans, the bigger concern is not just where the next game shows up, but whether the local sports market is settling into a stable solution or simply moving from one platform to another. The broadcast picture in the region has been in flux for a while, and the next change may be arriving soon enough. [Read more 🡒]
Nathan Eovaldis Next Week Just Got Huge For The Rangers Rotation
Nathan Eovaldis rehab has reached a point where the next stretch of days will tell the Rangers a lot about how soon they can realistically count on him again. The right-hander is coming back from right posterior elbow inflammation and has been throwing 50 pitches off flat ground, a useful step, but he has not yet gotten onto a mound. For a rotation trying to hold together late in the season, that makes every bit of progress matter.
Manager Skip Schumaker made clear that what happens next week will be critical in shaping Eovaldis recovery timeline and any chance he can still help the club this year. The wrinkle is the calendar, with the minor league season running out of room and potentially limiting whether Eovaldi can get a proper rehab assignment in before the Rangers have to make a decision on his return. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Just Made A Bullpen Move That Could Matter In September
A strong night from Jacob deGrom helped the Rangers breeze past the Athletics 8-1, but the bigger roster note came before the game as Texas added veteran reliever Trevor Williams on a major league contract. With MLB rosters expanding to 28 players on Sept. 1, the Rangers also brought up infielder Cam Cauley from Triple-A Round Rock, giving the club a little more flexibility as the season enters its final stretch.
The bullpen move stands out because Texas has been trying to patch things together after injuries to Peyton Gray and Cole Winn left the relief corps thinner than it wants heading into September. Williams gives the Rangers a proven arm to lean on, and the timing suggests the club is looking for immediate help while keeping an eye on how the back end of the staff holds up over the next few weeks. [Read more 🡒]