Brandon Nimmo shut down for 30 days

According to multiple reports, Brandon Nimmo, in California to obtain a second opinion on his ailing neck from renowned spinal surgeon Dr. David Watkins, has been advised to avoid all baseball activities for at least the next 30 days. This news surely comes as a huge disappointment to Nimmo, first and foremost, and to anyone interested in the Mets’ fortunes.

This setback puts a punctuation mark on what’s been an injury-plagued season for Nimmo. His neck issues trace back to at least April 16th, when he was removed from a game against the Phillies in the bottom of the first inning due to neck pain. At that time, Nimmo reported having woken up with a stiff neck, only to feel it seize up as the game went underway. After missing a couple games, Nimmo returned to action, only to be forced to leave another game a week later—this time due to what was described as a left oblique twinge.

Nimmo labored on for most of the next month and was finally placed on the IL with a start date of May 21. At that time, Nimmo told media his neck pain had been so debilitating that it adversely affected his ability to turn his head in ways necessary to play center and right field, and that it bothered him when he ran. The Mets initially reported that MRI results merely showed inflammation; however, a scant few days later, it was revealed that, contrary to that initial report, Nimmo had whiplash and a bulging disc in his neck.

With Nimmo out of commission indefinitely, the Mets will continue to roll with some combination of outfielders who will both do the job with varying degrees of success and fall utterly short where Nimmo’s sheer joie de vivre is concerned. Michael Conforto has playing playing right field more or less every day, with Juan Lagares has been getting the bulk of the playing time in center. With Nimmo’s absence, along with Yoenis Cespedes being out for the season, Dominic Smith has seen consistent playing time in left-field.