Brandon Nimmo is week-to-week with a low grade strain in his right knee and ankle, New York Mets general manager Billy Eppler told reporters, including Joel Sherman of the New York Post. His status for Opening Day remains unclear.
Nimmo, 30 later this month, re-signed with the Mets on an eight-year, $162M deal this winter. The left-hander is coming off another stellar year in which he hit .274/.367/.433 with 16 home runs over 151 games. That last figure is important, as it was the first time Nimmo had topped 100 games since the 2018 season, and only the second time of his career. With that in mind, there’s reasonable cause for concern when an injury-prone player is dealing with any injury, even if this one doesn’t appear to be overly serious.
Having said that, Opening Day is now less than two weeks away, and with Nimmo set to be reevaluated in a week this development would throw a fair amount of doubt over his status for the Mets’ opener. If that is the case, the Mets could use Starling Marte in center field to begin the year, with Tommy Pham and Mark Canha handling the corners. Tim Locastro would likely be the first cab off the rank as a backup outfielder, although one other option for the team would be to use Darin Ruf as their fourth outfielder until Nimmo returns, paving the way for rookie Brett Baty to make the Opening Day roster.
While it remains unclear how much, if any, of the regular season Nimmo will miss, it’s another blow for a Mets side that recently lost star closer Edwin Diaz to a season-ending injury and veteran starter Jose Quintana to a long-term injury.
