Brandon

Nimmo

It’s not great that this is still a thing, but Nimmo believes it’s manageable. “The biggest thing is to be ready for Opening Day. To that point, we are just going to try and go as fast as the foot will let us,” Nimmo said. “I’m in the jogging progression now. Hopefully, that will go to the sprinting [level], and then we’ll be able to get back into it. It should be good to go. But obviously, there will be steps forward and backwards through all of it.” The Mets could have Nimmo spend more time at DH this year. It wound weaken the defense, with Jesse Winker presumably taking his place in left field, but it’d be worth it to keep his bat in the lineup.

The Mets will roll out the exact same lineup as they did in Game 1, which means Nimmo will remain in the field despite playing through plantar fasciitis.

Nimmo was visibly limping during Game 1 of the ALCS and now we know why. “Right now it hurts pretty good,” Nimmo said. “The second-to-last game against Philadelphia, I did something on the field and made it quite a bit worse. … When it gets inflamed and flares up, it’s a harder thing to calm down.” The 31-year-old said the injury doesn’t bother him when he plays the field or when he swings but only when he’s running. Still, he has no plans to rest. “It’s the NLCS,” he said. “You do whatever you can in order to get out there and help in any way you can.”

After the Phillies scored three in the sixth to tie the game, Nimmo untied it with a two-out solo shot off Orion Kerkering. Nimmo also singled and has hit .333/.391/.476 slash over the first five games of the postseason.

Nimmo slashed a pitch left down the middle of the plate from a surprisingly ineffective Matt Strahm the opposite way to give the Mets a 2-1 lead. His RBI single in the ninth extended that lead to 6-1. Nimmo is now 5-for-16 in the postseason, and he’s driven in three runs over four games.

The Phillies got a run in the top of the first, and the Mets responded in the bottom of the second. There was mostly it for the offense, with Nimmo’s solo shot being the exception. It was Nimmo’s third homer in five games and 22nd of the year. The Mets (87-69) remained two games ahead of the Braves (85-71) and moved into a tie with the Diamondbacks, who lost on Sunday. Two of those teams will reach the postseason as Wild Cards, and all have six games remaining.

Nimmo’s homer was a two-run blast off Taijuan Walker — one of the four the Mets hit off the right-hander — and he also drove a run in fourth on a double. It’s nice to see from a player that came into Thursday’s game with an OPS of .610 in the month of September, and hopefully for the Mets/fantasy managers who roster Nimmo this is the start of a nice end to the month/season.

Nimmo raised his average to .227 and his OPS to .728. Both marks are career lows (min. 100 games). Nimmo had hit at least .274 in each of the last four years prior to 2024. He has 19 home runs, 78 RBI and 13 steals on the year, but the average has put a damper on what’s otherwise been a solid year.

Nimmo hit eighth on Opening Day 2021. That’s the last time he’s began a game batting lower than fourth in the Mets lineup. The move comes as he’s hit just .184/.288/.270 during the second half of the season. One imagines he’ll move back up once he snaps out of it.

It was Nimmo’s first game with three hits since August 2nd. He had hit at least .274 in four straight seasons entering this year. Nimmo is hitting just .230 with a .751 OPS on the year. He’s helped fantasy teams with his 18 home runs, 72 RBI and 11 steals. but the average has been a drag from a player who consistently posted higher averages in the past.