Brandon Nimmo Will Be the Next Captain in New York
We ~found~ the worthy heir.
I know of a man from a strange, faraway land with no high school baseball that calls itself ‘Wyoming’. This man has kept himself healthy, continues to perform at the top of his game, and has reached the absurdly high ceiling projected upon him. He might possibly hold the dubious honor of the most obvious All-Star to be left entirely off of the ballot in baseball history.
Nope, this Mets piece isn’t about their pitching. It’s about the Happiest Man in Baseball™: Brandon Nimmo. Bryce Harper may have spent the off season spouting “Make Baseball Fun Again” — a bastardized version of Trump’s slogan — but he still remains one of the douchiest personalities in the game. (Yes. ‘Douchiest’ is a word now. Feel free to put that on a hat.) Harper may be having fun when he’s performing well and his team is putting up Ws, but Brandon Nimmo is the one having fun all the damn time.
I could be deep in the throughs of a depression, and seeing Nimmo smile will truly brighten my day. He’s the human embodiment of what I think joy might be and I wish I could put him in my pocket and take him everywhere with me. He could give that animated character from the Disney movie Inside Out a run for its money. I have never seen anyone, in the 20+ years that I’ve been watching baseball, as happy as that man is just to be on the field.
Nimmo has fantastic plate discipline. Towards the end of last season, while still writing for Rising Apple, I predicted that he would end up as the Mets new leadoff guy. His patience and table-setting was reminiscent to that of Curtis Granderson back in 2015. As of writing this, his OBP currently ranks third in the National League at .407 just behind Freddie Freeman and Joey Votto. And while that’s a fantastic quality for a leadoff hitter, it’s watching him draw the actual walk that is the best part of his at-bat.
Trademark smile spread across his face, Nimmo tosses his bat aside and takes off running at full speed towards first. He makes his religious gesture and points to the sky, just as any hitter might do if they had gotten an RBI or a single or a double. He’s happy and grateful that he can contribute in any way possible.
He has inexplicably gotten some heat for this. And I’m not sure why. Whether it’s Mark DeRosa on the MLB Network or some other douche without a TV show (the Mets managerial candidate later stepped off), they can’t seem to wrap their head around why Nimmo is happy that he’s getting paid to do something he loves. Something that most of us would give our left foot to achieve. And don’t for a second believe that Brandon doesn’t have a backbone just because he’s Guy Smiley. He knows of the silent but loud message that is retweeting.
Nimmo has every reason to be smiling, leading the National League in SLG (.585), wOBA (.421), and wRC+ (172). That is more home runs than the guys the Mets brought in to hit home runs. If you would have told me that Brandon Nimmo would be out slugging Yoenis Cespedes this time last year, I would have asked where I could purchase the drugs you are taking. If you would have told me that Cespedes would be spending and unknown amount of time on the DL again I would maybe reconsider buying those drugs.
How he carries himself on the field is consistent with his demeanor off of it. He’s polite to the media, takes responsibility for aspects of tough losses when he feels he could have done more, and hangs around to sign autographs for young fans after games for as long as he can. If I had to think of a personality type that was the exact opposite of what Matt Harvey once brought to New York, it would be Brandon Nimmo. New York is a harsh and unforgiving city. Mets fans were drawn to Harvey and the “Dark Knight” persona because he embodied that tough guy aspect that so many New Yorkers can identify with.
New Yorkers may put up a Harvey-like front most of the time, but deep down, we are Nimmo. We just want a little light in our lives, amongst the daily chaos. We want to be the guy that’s happy that he gets to do what he loves every day. And if we can’t be that guy, well then at least we’ve got him playing for our team, our city.
If there’s two players that the Mets should without a question lock down for the long term it’s Jacob deGrom and Brandon Nimmo. Nimmo won’t be arbitration eligible until 2020, and a free agent until 2023. But why wait? He’s one of the few home grown players in the Mets system who became exactly what we’d hoped.
I know Mets fans pine for their injured captain of yesteryear. But if anyone has the potential to do the unthinkable and replace David Wright, it’s Nimmo, the everyday player with unquestioned commitment and infectious exuberance to his craft. It sounds really familiar and uh, right, to me. So pay the man, slap a franchise tag if baseball ever adopts such a thing, and give the Mets a new captain to move forward and conquer with, one grin at a time.
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