For slow and steady Nimmo, 'it's all about building'

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- For about 20 minutes on Saturday, Brandon Nimmo shagged fly balls on a Clover Park back field, working up a sweat away from his teammates. Taking his time, he stopped to chat with Darryl Strawberry and some others on the outfield grass. On this day, Nimmo had nowhere to be. The Mets have played more than a week’s worth of Grapefruit League games, but he has yet to appear in any.

That is by design. Nimmo is completely healthy, he stresses. That he still doesn’t know exactly when he’ll take the field is no reason for alarm, but part of a spring progression he drew up before reporting to camp.

Last year, when a Major League Baseball lockout shortened Spring Training by several weeks, Nimmo realized that the truncated Grapefruit League schedule didn’t affect his ability to gear up for a season. More than that, he responded with a career-high 151 games in the regular season, leading him to believe that the reduced spring workload helped him stay healthy.

There may have been no lockout this year, but Nimmo is trying to mirror that formula in the first season of an eight-year, $162 million deal.

“It’s just a shift of perspective, honestly,” Nimmo said. “I’m not trying to make a team anymore. It’s all about being available for my guys.”

Of the 25 hitters in Major League camp, only four have yet to appear in a game. One is outfielder Starling Marte, who underwent groin surgery in November and has been on a slow progression because of it; he expects to debut on Friday. Another is infielder Danny Mendick, who’s coming off a torn ACL in his knee. The third is Darin Ruf, who received a cortisone shot at the beginning of camp to alleviate discomfort caused by arthritis in his right wrist.

Then there's Nimmo, the only fully healthy player of the bunch. Before last season, Nimmo had eclipsed 92 games in a season just once, back in 2018. Despite being firmly established as a full-time player at that point, he managed only 69 games in 2019, 55 in the pandemic-shortened season to follow and 92 in 2021, as he was beset by a litany of finger, neck and hamstring injuries.

But last year, with a short spring runway, Nimmo was durable, amassing 673 plate appearances and playing a career-high 1,282 1/3 innings in center field. That led to a series of conversations with manager Buck Showalter and the club’s performance staff, who urged him to do what’s right for him. Together, Nimmo and team trainers drew up a plan to have him perform an extra week or two of drills on the back fields -- including plenty of batting practice and live BP reps -- before entering games.

“It’s all about building to where you can do 162 in a row,” Nimmo said.

Nimmo might make his Grapefruit League debut as soon as Wednesday, or perhaps toward the end of next week, depending upon how quickly he can check his remaining boxes. There’s no rush, he knows, with plenty of time left to get at-bats in games.

“In my point of view, the most important thing about Spring Training is leaving healthy,” he said. “You’re going to get 700 at-bats during the year, so at some point you’re going to catch up. I know you want to be prepared for the first ones, but let’s be honest. I’ve been playing for seven years now. When the lights turn on, I’m going to be ready to go.”