PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Listening to Brandon Nimmo, a load-management success story, almost makes you believe the Mets’ long history of medical calamities could eventually be a thing of the past.
The operative word being “almost.” Accidents happen. Players inevitably get hurt, as Kodai Senga did with his shoulder strain last month. But in Nimmo’s case, and really, a decent chunk of the Mets’ core, the team’s protocols have proved fairly effective. At least on the position-player side.
Over the past two seasons, the Mets are the only team to have four players among the top 31 in total games played: Francisco Lindor (321) ranked third, Pete Alonso (314) was No. 14, Jeff McNeil (304) at No. 28 and Nimmo (303) at No. 31. The runner-up was the Rangers with three; the Guardians and Atlanta each had two.
Obviously, there is some luck involved (McNeil already is sidelined this spring with a sore biceps muscle). Grinding through 162 games stretched over six months is a treacherous jungle to navigate. Bad hops, wild fastballs and ill-timed leaps into walls are all work-related hazards. But Nimmo — who delayed his first Grapefruit League start until Sunday, the Mets’ ninth game — is Exhibit A when it comes to playing smarter rather than red-lining past the breaking point.
Two years ago, with the start of spring training pushed back by the sport’s labor lockout, Nimmo devised a plan to scale back his March reps in order to preserve himself for the regular season. It didn’t hurt that Nimmo was heading into a contract year — an optimal time to pad the Scott Boras binder — but the less is more approach allowed him to stay on the field at an unprecedented rate.
“The results speak for themselves,” Nimmo said. “So if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”
Before 2022, Nimmo reached the 100-game plateau only once in six seasons, when he logged 140 in 2018. But during the past two years, through collaboration with the Mets’ training staff, Nimmo has…
Read the full article here