Mets Bring Back Brandon Nimmo with 8-Year Extension
The never-ending chaos that is MLB free agency continues as the Mets make a rather surprising move in extending Brandon Nimmo to an 8-year, $162 million contract. The New York Post’s Jon Heyman was the first to break the news Thursday.
This move comes just days after the Mets went out and brought in Justin Verlander fresh off his third Cy Young. It’s evident the Mets are still committed to spending money to bring success in an uber competitive NL East — the Phillies have already brought in the likes of Trea Turner and the Braves making moves to improve their bullpen. The Mets will need to make moves to try and compete in the bloodbath of a division.
The question is, I’m not sure this move is the right one. Nimmo is by no means a bad player, but he hasn’t done near enough yet in my eyes to earn a contract of this stature. He’s a guy who’s struggled to stay on the field his entire career, only playing over 100 games in a season only twice. He frequently finds himself on the IL and at 29, I don’t see his health magically becoming much better.
Nimmo, again, is not a bad player. He’s great at getting on base and drawing walks while playing good defense in center field. But at the end of the day, do you want to give franchise player-type money to a guy who’s just good at getting on base?
Nimmo has also never seemed to find that power stroke. In his 7-year career, he’s yet to hit over 20 home runs or drive in more than 70 runs. And although he boasts an impressive slash line of .274/.367.433, he seems to lack the overall production of other guys making this kind of money.
Overall, this just kind of seems like an overpay to me for a guy who is nearing 30 with an extensive injury history. I don’t know what other teams were offering Nimmo, but if this was the market for him, then I probably would have let him walk or traded him for some more pieces back when I had the chance.
All in all, for a Mets team that’s clearly making a run at the World Series, they certainly need this move to pay dividends in a big way, because as we know angry Mets fans are good for no one.
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