PHOENIX — Brandon Nimmo, where are you?
With Nimmo in the mix, it will be extremely tough for the Mets to rally around to secure a postseason berth.
But if the Mets continue to get a regular version of Nimmo after the All-Star break, it might be time to start looking at 2025.
Entering Tuesday's game, the outfielder was hitting .182 with a lackluster .604 OPS over his past 43 games.
During that span, he was on pace for 192 strikeouts over the course of the season.
Nemo and Metz continue to search for answers.
“It's an interesting situation because it's not like his swing has completely changed or anything dramatic,” co-hitting coach Jeremy Barnes said before the Mets played the Diamondbacks at Chase Field. “It hurts like a thousand paper cuts, and he's worked to get better, but he feels off for a few days and then it just happens again.”
Nimmo had a strong six weeks before the break and was named a National League All-Star candidate.
After hitting a home run against the Nationals on July 10, his OPS rose to .832, but it has steadily declined since then.
He entered the game with a .745 OPS and had just one multi-hit game over the past three weeks.
If there's one theme, it's that Nimmo struggles with pitches that are high and low inside.
“Since the All-Star break, guys have been pitching to him better than they have in the past,” Barnes said. “They were able to shut him down in his weak areas and try to attack those. They were able to do that, but I think they were probably trying to cover them too much and not playing to his overall strengths.”
“That's a big topic we've talked about. Let's keep things simple, play to our strengths and if we get hit with a certain pitch, we'll have to take a gamble and take a chance, but we'll get back to trying to find a pitch that we can respond to.”
The Mets' lineup has performed well since Francisco Lindor moved to the leadoff spot in late May and Nimmo took over as second batter.
But Nimmo's poor performance in recent weeks has forced manager Carlos Mendoza to make some changes to the lineup, with Mark Vientos settling in to bat second behind Nimmo.
Barnes suggested that to some extent, Nimmo was a victim of the success of the first half of the season.
“When you're not at your best, it's easy to hold yourself to the same standards you did when you were in the best shape of your career,” Barnes said. “It's about keeping it simple, winning and building momentum to get back to where you were before.”
The Mets entered the day three games behind Atlanta for the third wild card spot in the National League.
Barnes was asked about the possibility of completing the turnaround without Nimmo's contributions.
“It's not all Nemo's fault,” Burns said, “but when he's right it helps.”
“We're not going to attribute this postseason run solely to Nimmo's success or failure on the baseball field. If we make the postseason, there's no doubt Nimmo will contribute to that in some way, but it's going to take a team effort.”
