Brandon Nimmo leaves Wednesday’s game with apparent leg injury
This is not what you want to see with two weeks left in the season.
Mets’ center fielder Brandon Nimmo left Wednesday’s game in the bottom of the first inning after pulling up lame while chasing after a fly ball. Nimmo appeared to aggravate something in his left leg, which left him limping and earned an on-field visit from the athletic trainer. After a short conversation, Nimmo was removed from the game. In the fourth inning, the Mets announced that Nimmo had left quad tightness. Mark Canha came off the bench to replace him in center field.
“This one day is not worth what could be weeks if I was to do something worse,” Nimmo posited, saying he didn’t want to feel like a liability.
“I came out of the game because we felt like this could be just a few days kind of thing, rather than weeks.”
For Nimmo, who had already set a career-high for most games played in a season, the injury comes at a devastating time. The outfielder has prided himself on his health this year, which has allowed him to be available nearly every single day. He also has set personal bests in RBI, hits and runs, and needs just one more double to surpass his total from 2018.
After the game, Nimmo explained how he sustained the injury, which came when he stole second base in the top of the first.
“When I got up from there, I just felt a little tight,” he said. “Now, it just kind of feels like a charlie horse. When I was in center field and I came in for that ball, I was kind of dragging.”
The Mets say Nimmo will undergo imaging on Thursday to determine what exactly he is dealing with. Nimmo expressed extreme confidence that he will not miss extended time. Holding him out of the upcoming Oakland series seems like both a safe and logical plan, though.
Nimmo only had two stolen bases entering Wednesday’s game, despite showing noticeably better speed this year. Both of those stolen bases happened in the last ten days. The reluctance to run earlier in the year was by design, as Nimmo was trying to stay on the field and reduce the risk of injury. Ironically, a half inning after swiping his third bag of the year, Nimmo was dealing with a leg problem that knocked him out of a game.
If the injury ends up keeping Nimmo off the field for a few days, it depletes the Mets’ outfield even further. Starling Marte’s finger injury has kept him on the shelf since Sept. 6, and as of now there’s no update on when he’ll return. If neither of them are in the lineup, the Mets are likely looking at an everyday outfield of Canha in center and Jeff McNeil and Tyler Naquin in the corners.
“I think he was smart about it,” Buck Showalter declared. “[There’s] always concern, but you know, I’m hoping that his caution there is something that will to [benefit us.]”
