Mets fans share, reflect on their interactions with beloved Brandon Nimmo: 'Such a gentle spirit'

Brandon Nimmo always stopped.

Not on the field, where he was known for sprinting to first base after being walked. And certainly not when his plantar fasciitis flared up, or when a recurring neck injury made it so he couldn’t even turn his head toward reporters during postgame interviews.

But he stopped on the backfields at the Mets spring training complex in Port St. Lucie, before games at Citi Field, and late into the night near the player’s parking lot – for years, signing autographs in a beater of a car that he was too loyal to get rid of.

There were plenty of baseball reasons for the trade – the one that sent the homegrown Met to the Rangers in exchange for Marcus Semien. But even though Nimmo chose to waive his no-trade clause, the immediate aftermath was one of tribute – on X, on Reddit, and via TikTok compilations.

Here are a few of the stories.

‘Just pure kindness’

Shaun Hammond of Patchogue was at a Mets game this year when his three young sons were chosen to do the pregame 'play ball' announcement. Without even asking, Nimmo was already there with a signed baseball for each.

“It was completely unprompted with no fanfare—just pure kindness,” said Hammond via email. “My boys were wide-eyed, and for me and my wife, it was a tear-in-the-eye moment we’ll never forget. My mom still gets emotional seeing the photos and video we captured that day. A framed photo of Brandon with my sons now hangs in my parents’ home as a reminder of that special day.”

After speaking to security, he learned that this was a habit for Nimmo. “It’s a small gesture, but one that leaves a lasting impact,” Hammond said. “[It] made me proud to root for this team and for Brandon.”

‘He legitimately saved my self-esteem that day’

Matt Engel had grown up overweight before getting into fitness and personal training, but though the outside had changed, there were still some internal battles to be fought.

Engel, originally of Tarrytown but now living in Florida, said that it took one interaction with Nimmo for that healing process to move forward.

It was spring training of either 2021 or 2022 when he met Nimmo on the backfields in Port St. Lucie. They chatted briefly, Nimmo asked his name, and Engel quipped that they should work out together.

“He said, ‘You don’t even look like you need to lift with me – I’m trying to look like you,’ ” Engel recalled. “I’ve never been extremely self confident in myself and ever since that interaction – Brandon Nimmo saying he wanted to look like me, even if it was in jest or a funny comment, he has no idea the impact that has had on my life and how I look at myself in the mirror. He legitimately saved my self esteem that day in February.”

Since then, he and mom Lisa made a point to seek out Nimmo, and Engel has fed off that original motivation. He and Lisa were driving together when news of the trade broke. “I haven’t seen my mom cry like that since her dad died. That’s the type of impact he had.”

‘I have used Brandon as an example for my son’

Laura Immediato Brower’s son, Austin, was only 3 ½ when he handed Nimmo a homemade birthday card.  It was 2014, when Nimmo was playing with the Port St. Lucie Mets. “I was told by the staff that he had hung the card up in his locker,” said Browser, originally of Westchester, but now in Florida.

When Nimmo was promoted to Double-A, her son cried, thinking he’d never see his favorite player again. Instead, they saw Nimmo year after year, taking an annual photo together at spring training.

“My son is now 15 [and] has learned the meaning of hard work, dedication and integrity from watching Brandon play over the years,” she said. “I have used Brandon as an example for my son [as] a man to look up to and emulate. While we’re saddened by the trade, we will watch Brandon play wherever he goes and continue to be some of his biggest fans.”

‘Don’t you want a selfie?’

It was 2019 and Alex Winters had seen that Nimmo was doing a signing event at Modell’s Sporting Goods near his apartment in New Hyde Park. Winters needed a softball glove anyway, and why not get an autographed flyer while he was there?

“I didn’t want to take up all his time but I was just happy to chat for a brief minute,” said Winters. “When I turned around to leave, he said a little loudly, ‘Hey, don’t you want a selfie?' I didn’t even have that thought in my head but that was the type of guy he was for Mets fans – incredibly thoughtful, fan first, and always trying his best.”

‘Such a gentle spirit’

Wheatley Heights’ Jordan Simpson is known for the viral recap songs he writes after Mets games, but when Nimmo was traded, he knew this, too, called for a musical tribute.

For years, Nimmo has walked out to “I’m So Blessed” by CAIN – a catchy Christian rock song that declares that either on his best or worst day, he’s a child of God. Simpson took that and ran with it.

‘He had Queens in his heart, full of love in his body,” Simpson sings in the clip which, by Wednesday, had over 7,000 likes on Instagram. “On our best days, he gave us all he got. On our worst days, he gave us all he got.”

Nimmo liked the song, commented and reposted it, adding, ‘I really do feel so blessed.’

For his part, Simpson said he’d only met Nimmo twice. “It was just pleasant,’ he said. “I was like, ‘I appreciate you, Brandon, and he said, ‘God bless you, brother’ – like, aw. He’s such a gentle spirit, you know?”

‘It humanized him for me’

Adeel Jamaluddin was at the NLDS clincher in 2024 when he saw Nimmo projected on the giant screen, standing on the field alone, hands on hips as he looked out into the stands.

“He was crying and obviously emotional and just soaking it all up,” wrote Jamaluddin, of Manhattan, in an email. “It humanized him for me…[I thought] ‘you should soak it up’. It’s that feeling that will push you through the next time. More likely than not, the next time will be even harder! So, you’ll need that feeling to get you through. Anyways, I contemplated all that when I saw Nimmo there on the field, and I just really appreciated that he did that publicly for all of us to see and experience with him.”

‘The perfect example of a bygone era’

Like Jamaluddin, Chuck Hadyniak, of Maine but originally from New Jersey, was also struck by Nimmo’s reaction after defeating the Phillies.

“The way he spoke [after the clincher] and his genuine heartfelt words really resonated with me,” he said. “This is an era of sports where many athletes choose to focus on self-promotion and have delusions of grandeur… Throughout the years he played with the lunch pail mentality, worked hard, supported his teammates, embraced the fans, never training the spotlight [on] himself. He was a perfect example of a bygone era. I miss these types of players.”

‘It made him someone I could be proud to root for’

Bernie Birnbaum met Nimmo when they were both kids. It was 2011, Birnbaum was a junior in high school and Nimmo had just graduated, gotten drafted, and was at the Mets game. Nimmo signed his hat, chatted with him, and even responded to a Facebook message he sent after.

“It was like talking with a much cooler peer or older brother,” Birnbaum wrote. He knew the two were different. Nimmo has described himself as a devout Christian, and “as a liberal and Jewish fan, I always assumed there was much we wouldn’t agree on,” Birnbaum said. “But the way he conducted himself on the field, in the media, and everywhere else always made him someone I could be proud to root for…

“I’ll continue to root for Brandon.”