Brandon Nimmo shows unprecedented improvement during season

Sitting in a meeting in Port St. Lucie, Florida, with Mets higher-ups this spring, Wally Backman made an assessment.

A season later, it’s one he’s readily able to admit was a mistake.

The 51s manager told the room that Brandon Nimmo would be a fourth or fifth outfielder in the majors.

He wasn’t alone in that opinion.

“I won’t tell you that now,” Backman said as the 51s begin their final road trip of the season Monday. “I’ll tell you that he’s an everyday guy on a championship club.”

Over the course of the season, Backman saw Nimmo develop from a hitter who was “robotic” at the beginning of the season to a guy challenging for the Pacific Coast League batting title, from a player who was prone to misplaying fly balls to a capable center fielder, from a guy who struggled at the plate in his first month of the season to one who went to the big leagues and held his own.

“The improvements that he made are way above and beyond anything that I’ve ever seen in a player from the start of the season to even the halfway point of the season to when he went to the big leagues in really all facets,” Backman said. “The thing with Brandon is he’s a hard worker.”

That, and he’s inquisitive.

Nimmo credited the coaching staff — Backman, hitting coach Jack Voigt and pitching coach Frank Viola — for helping him understand the game better.

They credited him right back.

“The one that deserves the credit is Brandon because of the way he works,” Backman said. “We’re a part of it to get him the information, but he has to be able to filter that information and use it to the best of his ability, and that’s what he’s been able to do.”

Backman called Nimmo a “sponge,” who always wants to learn. Voigt said he not only asks a lot of questions, but asks a lot of good ones, and Viola said unlike a couple years ago, Nimmo is “not afraid to open his mouth,” meaning he’ll come ask the pitching coach what a pitcher is thinking and why he’s pitching him the way he is.

For a full season, with no big injuries, Nimmo has been able to take the information he’s been giving from the coaching staff and translate it into results.

“I feel like I’ve grown a lot as a player and I’ve had a lot of different experiences now,” Nimmo said. “Being able to be healthy for the most part this season has really helped out. It’s helped me to play the games that I’ve needed to make the adjustments that I’ve needed.”

Those adjustments led him to a call up on June 25. While in New York the first time, Nimmo collected his first hit and home run and seemingly had a smile plastered on his face at all times.

The Nimmo that returned was more determined.

Over the course of a year, changes in Nimmo have manifested themselves off the field, too.

During the last homestand, he walked into his manager’s office and told him he didn’t need anymore days off.

“Last year, we were fighting to go to the playoffs and he hurt his knee and he wanted to go home and we needed him bad,” Backman said. “And so this kid has matured and grown up.”

And while there’s been improvement in every single facet of the game, those around him think there’s room for more.

Nimmo said one of the biggest differences from last year to this is that he’s gotten back to driving the ball well the other way, with nearly all of his home runs fitting that description.

He’s hit nine homers so far, one shy of his single-season total in the minors, but Voigt said he thinks his power will increase “as he starts to learn what he can do with his swing.”

The hitting coach also said he thinks Nimmo’s potential to steal some more bases will improve, too.

After all, Nimmo’s already spent a season improving in ways those around him couldn’t have predicted, prompting Backman to tell him he’s the most improved player he’s had in more than a decade of managing.

“When he has that kind of compliment to say to you, I don’t know that you can get a bigger compliment,” Nimmo said. “And so (I’m) very appreciate of that and appreciative of (the coaching staff) for working with me, but (I) still have a lot to work on and still I’m going to continue to work on. … But it’s nice to have seen some of it come to fruition.”

Betsy Helfand can be reached at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @BetsyHelfand.