PORT ST. LUCIE — Regardless of the plantar fasciitis and the sore knee that required an injection, Brandon Nimmo made it by way of spring coaching and is feeling good forward of the 2025 season. Nevertheless, Nimmo, who can be 32 on Opening Day, is aware of that with the mileage on his physique in his 30s, it’s unrealistic to suppose he received’t need to play by way of some aches and pains.
At this level in his profession, damage administration is as necessary as prevention, and Nimmo is extraordinarily diligent with it.
The Mets have labored to vary the tradition of their coaching room during the last half-decade. Gamers are inspired to return to the trainers after they really feel one thing is unsuitable, even when that one thing appears minor on the time. This hasn’t all the time been the case with the Mets, and in skilled sports activities generally, the place taking part in by way of accidents is anticipated.
Nimmo did play harm final season, taking part in by way of plantar fasciitis on and off. He managed it with therapy and scheduled days off, however it was clear he was taking part in by way of ache throughout the NLCS. He even joked about it with Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who was hobbled by an ankle damage throughout the playoffs.
The common season, nevertheless, is completely different.
“You have to constantly watch your workload,” Nimmo mentioned. “You’ve got to measure everything that you’re about to do and decide whether it’s worth the squeeze or not, because you really only have so many bullets in a day, and you really only have so many bullets in a career or in a lifetime.”
The Mets have methods to trace power expenditure and different well being metrics. Nimmo trusts the coaching employees and the knowledge given to him by them. After being tagged as injury-prone earlier in his profession, Nimmo has now performed in at the least 150 video games in every of the previous three seasons, crediting the plan the trainers put collectively for him.
He has DH days to get him off of his ft, he adjusts his energy and conditioning plans accordingly every week and he doesn’t power something that isn’t there on the basepaths. He isn’t working simply to attempt to steal a base, he’s taking cues from first base coach Antoan Richardson when a swipe is in sight, or taking an additional base if the chance presents itself.
The plan continues to work, so he’ll proceed to belief the coaching employees.
“It’s important for me to be out on the field, so it’s understanding those things and getting a little bit wiser and more mature with the games and everything to understand the situations,” Nimmo mentioned. “I’ll pull on all of that in order to try and have another healthy year this year.”
NEWLY MINTED
Left-hander A.J. Minter made his fifth Grapefruit League look Monday in a 6-6 tie with the Yankees, pitching for the third time in every week. It was a benchmark he wanted to hit to ensure that the Mets to be comfy together with him on the Opening Day roster.
After present process hip surgical procedure final August whereas with the Atlanta Braves, Minter wasn’t positive he can be prepared for the beginning of the season, himself 60-40 odds. Minter and the Mets each agreed that an injured checklist stint in March and April can be higher than one late within the season.
Proper-handers Max Kranick and Huascar Brazobán are nonetheless in competition for a bullpen spot as effectively, however the Mets are nonetheless factoring Minter’s well being into their determination making course of, and want to see how he feels over the subsequent few days.
“My goal the whole offseason was to be ready for Opening Day,” Minter mentioned. “I didn’t think it was going to come down to literally today, the last day to make that decision because you never want to go into the season just not feeling confident, for sure. But also, just not trying to back and get injured…
“I think I kind of shocked myself, but also I knew how hard I worked this off-season to make sure it was ready.”
The Mets will make closing roster choices after understanding Wednesday in Houston.
RECORD SCRATCH
The Mets set a brand new attendance report this spring, seeing 106,027 followers come by way of Clover Park, essentially the most for the reason that crew moved to Port St. Lucie in 1988. Monday’s attendance whole of 8,088 for a Subway Collection exhibition sport was the second-most ever for a single sport, and essentially the most since 2015, when the 8,175 followers have been readily available for a Yankees-Mets spring matchup.
