David Lennon: Former Met Brandon Nimmo didn't want to leave Queens but club hit the reset button
Brandon Nimmo of the Texas Rangers looks on from the dugout during the fourth inning against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Don’t blame Brandon Nimmo for the Mets ill-fated decision to nuke the core last winter. Nimmo was prepared to nix the November trade that ultimately sent him to Texas, until a phone call with Pete Alonso suggested the front office already had its collective finger on the button to detonate the ’25 roster.
Nimmo wanted to run it back with Alonso. But when his fellow homegrown Met told him there was radio silence from the team, that gave him the idea that president of baseball operations David Stearns was going for a clean slate. His initial shock gave way to acceptance.
“When I heard that, it kind of took me back,” Nimmo said Tuesday, sitting in the Rangers’ dugout. “We left that conversation thinking he was probably going somewhere else. I hadn’t really made up my mind yet, but it definitely was a factor going into it. I wasn’t really sure what I’d be coming back to.”
Months later, long after Nimmo waived his no-trade clause, everyone got their answer. The 2026 Mets are virtually unrecognizable to Nimmo, who spent a decade in Flushing before being dealt for Marcus Semien, and the flipped roster has been a complicating factor in trying to dig out from MLB’s second-worst record (13-22).
Nimmo believes, however, that trading him to the Rangers was primarily a “baseball decision” and not due to any clubhouse friction. To him, the front office “went with their gut” in reshaping the roster.
“I didn’t see anything wrong with the chemistry between the guys,” Nimmo said. “And if it was happening, I didn’t know about it, so they were keeping it hush-hush, which is kind of tough to do in a clubhouse where you spend most of the day with each other.
Stearns’ vision for renovating the Mets -- and ditching the bad mojo from last year -- may have overlooked one critical element. Performing in New York requires a special skill-set and it helps to have players that have plowed through that adversity, especially over in Queens. Nimmo always thought that was the case, but he respects that even more since joining the Rangers. The Mets, so to speak, tend to have their very own unique challenges.
“One hundred percent,” Nimmo said. “Guys would always tell me when they would come from other teams, ’Is this always how it is here?’ And I didn’t know any different, so I was like, I’m not really the guy to ask about that. This is how it’s been ever since I came up.
“Now being on the other side, I do realize what they mean. It is a lot more laid back. I wouldn’t say less responsibility, but it’s just a whole lot easier. So there is a certain type of player and type of person that it takes in order to be in New York. I understand that better now. I just grew up in it.”
Anything specific?
“Everything, honestly,” Nimmo continued. “Traffic getting places, the logistics of travel, the media on the everyday basis -- and how much of it there is. Even like the outward appearances of social media profiles, getting pulled in different directions to meet this celebrity and that celebrity. It’s all great -- it’s fantastic. And I absolutely loved it while I was here. But I do see what guys are talking about.”
Stearns was born and raised in Manhattan, but after front-office stints in Cleveland, Houston and Milwaukee, maybe he lost sight of that that New York ingredient when he took over the top job with the Mets. Nearly all of his new imports are either hurt or stumbling, from Semien (.208 BA) to Bo Bichette (.586 OPS) to Jorge Polanco (achy Achilles) to Luis Robert Jr. (back inflammation).
Nimmo arrived in the Bronx only five days after Alonso visited with the Orioles, but neither took the opportunity to take a well-deserved swipe at their former team. Alonso was off to a slow start for Baltimore, but enjoyed his return to New York, going 5-for-14 with a double and two homers, boosting him to six for the season. Nimmo did not play in Tuesday night's 7-4 Yankees win, and has been used sparingly since tweaking his hamstring last week against the Yankees in Texas. But he’s hitting .300 (39-for-130) from the leadoff spot with four homers and an .836 OPS.
On May 5, the Mets were losing the Nimmo trade, along with plenty of games in the process. Reversing that dismal trend in Flushing is not impossible -- Nimmo and Alonso helped fuel the miraculous turnaround in 2024 -- but these Mets don’t appear equipped to do the same.
“One of the best things you can do in New York is not panic,” Nimmo said. “Bad things are gonna happen. And if you just accept that, and face it head on, there’s a light at the other end of the tunnel. But sometimes you only know that after going through it a few times.”
This year’s Mets are experiencing that firsthand, just as the Nimmo Era teams repeatedly did -- far too often. The challenge for them now is surviving New York before it swallows their season. Navigating that is something Nimmo said he talked about with his agent, Scott Boras, as well as Stearns and owner Steve Cohen.
“There is a factor of people that seem to be comfortable (in New York) and succeed here,” Nimmo said. “And some guys it doesn’t translate as well. It’s one of those things, like chemistry, that’s harder to measure. But it’s 100% a real factor.”
The eternally upbeat Nimmo seems happy in his Texas uniform. The Mets he chose to leave behind? Not so much.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
