Mets' Brandon Nimmo suffers head gash after 'scary' early-morning fainting episode
Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo speaks after suffering a gash on his forehead. Credit: Newsday / Tim Healey
WASHINGTON —
Brandon Nimmo suffered a gash on his forehead Monday in an early-morning accident in which he fainted in the bathroom of his hotel room and woke up face down on the floor, startled by the sight of his own blood and confused about how he ended up there.
After extensive tests ruled out major issues, doctors discharged Nimmo from the hospital after about 11 hours. He was out of the lineup for the series opener against the Nationals, but manager Carlos Mendoza hopes he will return Tuesday after what he called “a little bit of an accident.”
Nimmo said he had never fainted before.
“It scared me,” he said. “I was trying to figure out, hey, you don’t just faint, right? What happened? Is there something bigger, an underlying issue? That’s why we needed to go check all the boxes. But yeah, I was definitely confused and scared when I woke up and was on the ground.”
His episode began at 5:15 a.m., when he woke up with an upset stomach and headed to the bathroom, he said. Then he felt a leg cramp, stood up to stretch and get water and returned to the toilet.
“I got tingling in my hands, I got really hot and that’s the last thing I remember,” he said. “All I remember is I woke up and I was on the floor of the bathroom. And I was confused. I was like, why am I here? I pushed up, and when I pushed up, I had the blood running off my face from where I hit my head.”
He doesn’t know what specifically he hit his head on.
“I’ve never had anything like this happen, where I just blacked out and I literally cannot tell you what happened,” Nimmo said. “I don’t know. I had all kinds of guys with me yesterday that I can vouch that I didn’t have any alcohol yesterday. I didn’t drink at all. I’m not really sure why this happened.
“When I’m telling you I literally don’t know what happened in that — I don’t even know if it was 10 seconds or a few minutes. I have no clue.”
Upon waking up and gathering himself — and grabbing a towel for his open wound — Nimmo called head athletic trainer Joseph Golia. They headed to a local emergency room. Doctors deduced that between the cramping and sudden movements/getting up too fast, blood rushed to — and then left — his brain. And sometimes that’s all it takes, Nimmo said.
“We went to the ER, got a CT scan, an EKG, all the tests that we could think of in order to find out what this might be,” he said. “Really glad that all the tests have come back negative, and so that’s very positive for us.”
Nimmo added that “it can happen one time in your life and you can never have to deal with it again,” so he doesn’t expect further issues. By the time he arrived at Nationals Park, about an hour before first pitch, the primary problems were a lack of sleep and food.
Asked if there is any chance this is related to getting hit in the head by a pitch on May 24, Nimmo said no, because there was no indication he suffered a concussion then. He went through extensive concussion testing that day and in the ensuing weeks.
“If I didn’t have a concussion [in May], there would be no correlation,” he said.
His forehead cut was glued, so he didn’t even need stitches, as bad as it seemed in the moment. He called it “just a little Harry Potter scar.”
“That’s the scary part, right? There’s a lot of blood,” he said. “There’s never been a moment in my life that I, like, cannot get back. It’s a weird feeling.”
Pitching plans
The Mets will restore top pitching prospect Christian Scott to their rotation Wednesday against the Nationals, Mendoza said. He’ll fill the hole created by Tylor Megill’s demotion to the minors.
“We’ve been saying he’s a big-league pitcher,” Mendoza said. “Where we’re at, especially needing a spot in the rotation, it’s his time now.”
Mendoza said the Mets have discussed using Jose Butto as a reliever but noted that “you always want to keep your depth,” especially with starting pitchers.
Senga update
Kodai Senga (right shoulder strain) will begin a rehabilitation assignment with High-A Brooklyn on Wednesday. He is due to throw two or three innings, maxing out at 40 pitches, according to Mendoza.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.