Heading into last season, it at least seemed the Mets were not as high on the former first round pick as they once were.  There were whispers he was really best suited to being a fourth outfielder.  Brandon Nimmo would respond by becoming an on base machine when he was called up to the Mets.

From July 30th until the end of the season, he hit .248/.368/.420 with a simply outstanding 15.2% walk rate.

However, that wasn’t enough for the Mets to think of him as anything more than a fourth outfielder.  Rather than giving him an inside path to at least fight for a spot in the everyday outfield, the Mets signed Jay Bruce and Adrian Gonzalez.  By and through those signings, the Mets indicated they wanted Michael Conforto in center, and they wanted Nimmo on the bench.

More than that, the Mets gave early indications they wanted to see Juan Lagares win the center field job out of Spring Training.  Yes, that job was only going to be Lagares’ for about a month or so, but it seemed to be his.  Certainly, his elite defense and supposed revamped swing were factors, but the Mets lack of belief in Nimmo also seemed to play a part.

Nimmo responded once again by having an outstanding Spring Training.  He would hit .306/.371/.613 with six doubles, two triples, three homers, and 11 RBI.  He continued to show an excellent eye posting an absurdly high 22.5% walk rate.

With that Spring Training, Nimmo is going to enter the 2018 season batting leadoff and playing center field.

But for how long?  From what we saw, Conforto is well ahead of schedule, and we can expect to see him in Flushing before his May 1st projected return date.  While Gonzalez has looked done for most of Spring Training, he did finish Spring Training strong.  It’s also important to note historically April is Gonzalez’s best month of the season.  Put another way, Gonzalez may play just well enough where you can’t justify sitting him.

That is unless Nimmo is that good.  At this time, we don’t know if Nimmo will have one, two, or three or more weeks to prove himself.  As we have seen in his young career, if you give him an opportunity, he is going to prove himself. Based upon his history, we can see he is going to do all he can to force the Mets hand.

To that end, the question is whether he is going to have enough time to prove to the Mets he is the long term answer in both center and the lead-off spot.