SAN DIEGO — Brandon Nimmo received the advice, but isn’t so sure it’s right for him.
As the Mets outfielder muddles through a horrific slump — he is 0-for-26 after grounding out as a pinch hitter in the Mets’ 4-0 loss to the Padres on Monday — there has been a request from manager Mickey Callaway that he expand his strike zone and not be so particular.
For Nimmo, who has built a career on plate discipline, those words were difficult to entirely digest.
“I am sure we will come up with a compromise on it,” Nimmo said. “I am definitely not a Vladimir Guerrero, I can’t swing outside of the zone and be successful, so it’s going to be me capitalizing on mistakes rather than expanding the zone.”
In a yo-yo start to the season, Nimmo is trying to find some level of consistency. After striking out 23 times in 40 at-bats to begin the year, Nimmo stabilized and began a sizzling three-week stretch in which he posted a 1.003 OPS and hit .333.
But Sunday’s game in Milwaukee marked the one-week anniversary of Nimmo’s most recent hit. He finished the game 0-for-3 with a strikeout. His 41 strikeouts entering play were tied for fourth in the National League.
Even though Nimmo was hitting only .192, his on-base percentage was .317 as he remains patient enough at the plate to take walks. Callaway just doesn’t want him exuding too much patience.
“The one thing we have talked to him about: Every now and again you have to expand the zone a little bit,” Callaway said. “The pitch he took for strike three [Sunday] may have just been off the plate, but it’s too close to take. You just have to fire on those balls, you can’t leave it up to a half-inch because that is something that is going to be called most of the time. You have got to fire on those. Once he starts feeling comfortable and being able to do that he is going to have more success.”
But Nimmo disagrees.
“I think that might have been the problem, swinging at bad pitches, so I think we’ll come on a compromise on what I need to do approach-wise,” Nimmo said. “But definitely something needs to change.”
As much as Nimmo would have welcomed even a bloop hit Monday at Petco Park to end his hitless streak, he is more concerned with trying to drive the ball.
“I haven’t really been doing real well at the plate as far as finding the barrel consistently, so just trying to work through it, talk to [hitting coach] Chili [Davis], get here early to work on things and stay late,” Nimmo said. “Watch video at home and just try to find things we can try to right the ship with.”
Nimmo is hardly the only Mets player in a slump. Michael Conforto, Todd Frazier, Wilson Ramos and Pete Alonso have also scuffled lately — a big reason the Mets entered play having scored only six runs in five games.
After posting an .887 OPS last season and helping to carry the Mets lineup in stretches, Nimmo said he knows he is good enough to survive this drought.
“I know it’s in there because last year certainly wasn’t a fluke,” Nimmo said. “You don’t do that for 162 games and just get lucky, so I know it’s in there and that is also part of the frustrating part is knowing that I am not coming through for these guys when I surely can.”
