Brandon Nimmo on being traded by Mets: 'I was taken aback'

The call from Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns came on Thursday, and for Brandon Nimmo, it was nothing less than “a shock,” he said.

Nimmo was just about to celebrate his daughter’s first birthday, and he and his wife, Chelsea, finally had put the finishing touches on a three-year construction project on a house near the Mets’ spring training home in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

“It was meant to host,” he said in a Zoom conference call with reporters Monday. “It was meant to have spring training parties and team get-togethers. We had kind of built this life centered around [the idea] that we were going to be New York Mets until the end.”

The end turned out to be Sunday.

The blockbuster move to send the homegrown outfielder to the Rangers for Marcus Semien gained steam during the general managers’ meetings earlier this month but could happen only if Nimmo, who has five years left on his contract, waived his no-trade clause.

After days of deliberation (with a little break for his daughter’s birthday), Nimmo finally gave the OK on Sunday, but not without some soul-searching.

Nimmo first asked Stearns if he was the only thing standing in the way of a trade, and when he got the affirmative, he began to seriously consider uprooting his family. He was told the team hadn’t been actively shopping him but that the Rangers were very interested.

He was the longest-tenured Met, beginning his career there in 2016, and is in the top 10 in franchise WAR, on-base percentage, runs, total bases, doubles, triples, homers, walks and runs created.

Nimmo said he was “trying to [win a World Series] with the Mets, but they had made it apparent that they felt like the best way to move forward for the Mets was this trade . . .

“I needed to know that the Rangers were committed to trying to win a World Series as well and that this wasn’t a rebuild that I was coming into — that this was somewhere where, one, I was extremely wanted, and they made that abundantly clear, and two, [it] was somewhere that I felt like in the next five years, we would be competing for World Series titles year in and year out,” he said.

Nimmo added that he already had talked with former teammate Jacob deGrom, who had only good things to say about the organization.

Still, there would be a sacrifice. “If I stay healthy, if I just kept producing, there’s a chance that it would have been me and David Wright [as] pretty much the only ones that had started and finished with the Mets,” Nimmo said. “I could have had a pretty good chance of having a number in the rafters, but that’s not what it all means to me. I would honestly rather win a World Series.”

Nimmo, who will play rightfield, said he intends to embrace his role as a veteran mentor and is excited to begin his work in Texas.

While surprising, there were signs that major upheaval was ahead for the Mets — something that began last month when the club gutted its coaching staff. In fact, the day after the season ended, Stearns said the team would have to be “open-minded” about changing up its core.

The trade itself is a bold if risky move — shipping off a homegrown fan favorite in exchange for Semien, a defensively elite second baseman coming off a down year at the plate. Semien, 35, has three years left on his contract. Nimmo, 32, has five.

“He’s a winner,” Stearns said of Semien in a Zoom conference call with reporters Monday. “He brings a winning drive and determination that I think is going to fit in well in our clubhouse and balances our lineup from the right side.”

Of Nimmo, he added that the outfielder had “an incredible career with the Mets. From the moment [we] drafted him, Brandon did everything right.”

The move gives the Mets more flexibility “from a near-term perspective,” Stearns said. “And also [for] allowing space for a number of very young outfielders who are coming, who are talented and will deserve spots at the major-league level.”

During the GM meetings, Stearns pointed to outfielder Carson Benge, the organization’s No. 2 prospect, as a possibility to make the Opening Day roster. Jett Williams, the No. 3 prospect,  also has taken reps in the outfield, though he’s primarily an infielder. The Mets have briefly experimented with Brett Baty and Luisangel Acuna in the outfield. There also are some attractive free-agent outfielders, including hard-hitting Kyle Tucker, who  almost certainly will demand a very long-term deal, and Cody Bellinger, who also can play first base.

Stearns said  Semien will not necessarily block out young infield talent from earning playing time.

“I think the good thing about the players who have played second base for us over the last couple of years who are a little younger or who may be becoming infielders, there’s a ton of positional versatility with all of them,” Stearns said. “So whether that’s Acuna or Jett Williams or Ronny Mauricio, we have a high degree of confidence that all of these guys can play multiple positions and play them at a high level.”

Stearns acknowledged that parting with Nimmo, a de facto clubhouse leader who was drafted by the team in 2011, wasn’t the easiest decision.

“Everyone here thinks highly of Brandon, but in order to create the type of sustainable championship-caliber play that we seek to have here, at times these types of decisions are necessary,” he said.

“It’s very difficult to create an equation for how you balance on-field performance and clubhouse chemistry and clubhouse leadership and how different pieces within that puzzle are all going to fit together . . . Brandon clearly was a very important piece, a prominent piece of our clubhouse for a long time, and we think Marcus is going to fit in really well.”

Said Nimmo: “It’s one part of my life and a chapter that is over, and that’s always sad.”

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.