It turns out that re-signing with the New York Mets this past offseason was about more than just financial guarantees for outfielder Brandon Nimmo.
For a newsletter shared on Tuesday, Anthony DiComo of the MLB website noted how Nimmo was a rookie with the Mets in 2016 when the organization held a jersey number retirement ceremony in honor of Hall-of-Fame catcher Mike Piazza:
More recently, Nimmo was at Citi Field when the Mets retired Keith Hernandez’s No. 17 last summer. The 30-year-old would like to follow in the footsteps of those club legends, but he first had to dedicate his long-term future to the Mets.
“It was one of the thoughts that was appealing to coming back to the Mets,” Nimmo explained. “When I signed, it was like, ‘Okay, everything that I’ve done to this point doesn’t just get erased. It stays with the Mets, and I continue to build off of it.'”
Of course, it certainly didn’t hurt that Nimmo ultimately put pen to paper on an eight-year contract reportedly worth $162M with the Mets in December. Money aside, Nimmo made it known that conversations he had with former club captain David Wright across Wright’s final three seasons as an active player helped sell him on the idea of possibly retiring a one-club man when all is said and done.
“You can see how much it means to the fans, those guys that were there and made such an impact,” Nimmo continued during his comments. “I have an opportunity to actually be there longer than those guys. So I just thought, ‘You know what? Why not? Why not try and make your career something like that?'”
Nimmo has repeatedly been mentioned as a candidate to be named the first Mets captain since Wright retired after the 2018 season. While Nimmo can’t do anything to force such a decision this spring, he can work to set some club records and chase World Series titles en route to earning a jersey number retirement ceremony of his own at some point in the 2030s.
“Some kid from Wyoming having his number hung at Citi Field in New York City,” Nimmo remarked. “You know? How cool would that be?”
Nimmo and company first may want to focus on getting the big-spending Mets past the wild-card round of the playoffs later this year. New York opened the current season with three wins in five games.
