Mets Midseason Top 10 Prospects, #2: Brandon Nimmo

Preseason AA ranking: 3

2015 stats at Double-A: .285/.351/.372; 7.9% walk rate; 19.6% strikeout rate

Season to date

Many were surprised to see Brandon Nimmo reassigned to Binghamton after performing admirably there during the second half of 2014. I thought they might send him there to consolidate some of his gains but that's not what's happened, Nimmo has performed slightly worse this season. His strikeout rate is about the same but his walk rate has collapsed from last season's 12.9% at the same level. Nimmo's isolated slugging is also down from last year, standing at .088, and he hasn't homered since April 14. We may be able to attribute some of this to the knee injury that sidelined him for a couple weeks back in May, we may not.

Why he ranks here

Despite the down season so far, Nimmo still projects to be a major leaguer in the near-to-not-too-distant future, which is more than can be said for the majority of prospects in the system. My concern with Nimmo is that the likely outcome projection has fallen to fourth outfielder/platoon bench guy, which is still a good outcome but leaves something to be desired. Like Gavin Cecchini, Nimmo came into this season with a new swing designed to get his hips more involved so he can tap into his power potential. That hasn't happened and is somewhat alarming when combined with the disappearing walk rate which used to be his calling card. Defensively, Nimmo is still able to handle himself in center on the strength of excellent reads off the bat and the hope is he can stay there in the near-term despite the concern with his knee. This may sound like a down report for the number two prospect in the system but there's still a lot of potential here, and an average major league regular outcome is absolutely still on the table. This year has turned into a bit more of a consolidation year than we had anticipated and has moved Nimmo's ETA back some to probably mid-2016.

Cautious optimism from Lukas:

"Nimmo's knee injury definitely threw a wrench in his 2015 season, likely ruining any chance he had for a late season cameo. While his performance in Double-A has actually been slightly better this season, it's based more in a high BABIP than the improved power he demonstrated last season. I still think there's more with Nimmo (as do two of the major prospect outlets that had him in their top 50), but the clock is starting to tick a little more loudly." - Lukas Vlahos

Nate is down on Nimmo:

"I'm somewhat pessimistic about Brandon Nimmo; to me, his utter lack of in-game power is an ominous sign." - Nate Gismot