Brandon Nimmo is one of just three members of the 2022 Mets who were on the last club that made the postseason back in 2016 — and he didn’t really get to experience it.
Nimmo didn’t take part in the one-game Wild Card against the San Francisco Giants as a part-time rookie trying to carve a niche within the organization.
On the cusp of breaking a six-year drought and being a centerpiece of this edition of the Mets, though, Nimmo was forced to think about the future; which is anything but certain. The 29-year-old is a free agent at the end of the season, whenever that comes as New York kicked off its postseason on Friday in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against the San Diego Padres.
“I haven’t really thought about the finality of the end yet, so I hadn’t really thought about that,” Nimmo said. “Yeah, I guess that gives even more reason to try and not make these the last ones. I’d like to win the last one. That would be good, be the last team standings.
“I haven’t given it much thought, I guess, but I’ve had great memories here this year. And however it works out, I will think fondly of this place.”
Nimmo is heading to the open market on a high note. He batted .274 with an .800 OPS, 16 home runs, and a career-high 64 RBI while his defense in center field took a monumental leap forward.
Whether or not the Mets will be willing to splurge to bring him back remains to be seen. Jacob deGrom is also a free agent this year while Pete Alonso is eligible for a long-term deal of his own as he enters a second year of arbitration this winter.
There is also the less-likely but faintly possible option of the Mets going after a power-hitting outfielder in free agency like Aaron Judge, for example, regardless of how unlikely it is that he’d leave the Yankees.
At least on Friday night at Citi Field, though, those issues seemed like a lifetime away as Nimmo finally was getting his postseason moment.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said. “You know we’ve had a lot of hard work to get to this point, and now it’s just the time to turn it loose and have fun out there… I got spoiled on it in the beginning, being a part of the atmosphere in 2016. I got to be in the dugout, I got to enjoy it, and I thought this was how it was going to go for a while.
“Now, it’s six years in between. So I’ll definitely be out there enjoying every minute of it.”
