Mets Q&A with Brandon Nimmo

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Ahead of his 10th season in the majors, Mets leftfield and clubhouse leader Brandon Nimmo sat down with Newsday for a wide-ranging Q&A about baseball, life and beards.

NEWSDAY: It’s been 14 years since you were the first draft pick of the Sandy Alderson era. You are the longest-tenured Mets player. What is it like being that guy? Does it feel sudden?

NIMMO: "It is pretty crazy to think about. I remember getting drafted, and it really doesn’t seem like that long ago that I was watching David (Wright) and (Yoenis) Cespedes and (Michael) Cuddyer, Bartolo (Colon). And I was like, man, these guys, they’ve been around for so many years. With David, he’s the face of the franchise. What would it be like to be one of those guys and stick around for that long? With everything you have, you want to be one of those guys. But you know it’s a long road ahead.'

"And to look up now and be the longest-tenured Met on this team, 14 years since being drafted, it’s crazy. Lots of ups and downs along the way. And a lot of adversity to fight through and triumphs and good things to celebrate. But it’s just crazy. It’s that old mantra of how fast time goes, especially when you’re having fun. I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of fun in this game.

"You look up and all this time has flown by. You just try and look around and enjoy moments and being out on the field because you know it won’t last forever. And you’re very fortunate to be in the position that you’re in. Moments like beating the Phillies in the NLDS stick with you and are moments that you take in. You start to realize I really need to enjoy this, because it won’t last forever."

ND: When David Wright visited spring training, he said it was fun to see you in this role because he remembered you as “a pup.” Is there anything you learned from him early in your career that you apply now?

NIMMO: "I watched him go about his work in a very professional manner. I remember when I met him at Citi Field (in 2011), they pulled him off to the side after a game and they’re like, hey David, this is our first-round pick, we’d love for you to meet him. And he’s like, oh yeah, I remember having a (phone) conversation with you. How are you doing? This and that. We talked and afterward he was like, all right, I’m heading off to go do a workout. And I just remember thinking at that time, man, he just finished playing a three-hour game and he’s about to hop on a plane and he’s about to go work out now. I remember that sticking in my head. OK, that must be what it takes. Doing the extra stuff, going the extra mile. And so throughout my career, I tried to go the extra mile and do the extra stuff and work, whether it was training methods or trying to evolve my nutrition and pay more attention to it and pay more attention to hydration. It definitely opened up my eyes. That was my first encounter with it."

ND: Last season, you and Francisco Lindor seemed to have several serious, one-on-one conversations in the clubhouse. How has your relationship with him grown in recent years?

NIMMO: "It definitely has evolved. When he first got here, we still had some older guys on the team. And he was Francisco Lindor, the star shortstop. We all knew about him and knew how good of a player he was. But getting to know him and how fantastic of a person he is really has been a treat over these four or five years. Our relationship has evolved from being younger guys who were trying to feel it out at first to now taking on that veteran role and doing it really with a little more wisdom, a little more experience and understanding what has not worked in the past and what has worked, especially last year.

"We had the success in ’22, but we also know what it was like in ’23 when we didn’t rise to expectations. Having that experience has helped us to be able to communicate better and more openly to each other about what we each feel the team needs or what we would like to see out of the team now. That’s the biggest thing. Now, we’ve developed a relationship where we can very easily come to each other and be honest with each other on where we think the team is. And we can give constructive criticism. We can come up with a plan as to where we would like to see the team go — or at least where we don’t want to see the team go, so we gotta go the opposite direction of that.

"So our relationship has definitely evolved. I have a lot of respect and admiration for him. And the feeling that I get from him is he has a lot of respect for me. That mutual respect is not taken lightly. So we try to work together but also keep each other accountable."

ND: This is the Mets’ fifth season under owner Steve Cohen. In what area have you witnessed the most change for the organization?

NIMMO: "We definitely are not afraid to bring the best players and the best staff and the best facilities here now. If it is a matter of what will help the team become better, Steve and Alex (Cohen) are going to be all in on it. So the end goal is always a World Series. And when they win their World Series — and we would love to do it this year — but when they win their World Series, I don’t think it’s going to be like, OK, that’s it. They’re going to say let’s go win another one.

"We’re not going to try to be the stepbrother to the Yankees, we’re not going to be the second team in New York anymore. We want to be New York’s team. We want to command respect for the Mets name. And I think that total buy-in from them has been the biggest difference I’ve seen."

ND: This will be your first season as a father. Is that any different? How do you view baseball/work differently?

NIMMO: "I’m fortunate to have a really supportive wife (Chelsea) who has understood how taxing this job is and how much mental and physical energy it takes. She’s been really amazing at helping me still try to do the very best I can at my job, because we have a short window with this and I want to try to get the most out of myself so I can help the team.

"And I don’t know if it’s a shift in perspective, but I’ve always known that family is going to stick around a lot longer than the baseball side of it. From that standpoint, I still want to be a good father and want to be a good husband. You want to be there to see that personality start to come out (of daughter Tatum), her reactions. She started screeching the other day. It just comes out of nowhere, where they start to find their voice more.

"I am very fond of my family, so I want to have a close family myself. You definitely value that and consider that above all else. But I also am blessed to be able to have this job and be doing something that I love and that I’m good at."

ND: Are you sticking with the beard for the season? What made you decide to grow one?

NIMMO: "I think so. We did a beard thing for the playoffs, where it wasn’t shaven as long as we were winning. I stuck with it in the offseason. I was like, eh, let me see what I can do with this. It ended up growing in all right. I asked Chelsea, what do you think? She liked it. All right, we’ll keep it around for a while and see what happens. People seemed to like it at fanfest and when we showed up to spring.

"What do they say, variety is the spice of life? Sometimes you just need a different haircut. Sometimes you just need different facial hair. Last time I tried to grow one out was 2015 and I wasn’t able to. I could only get the goatee going. So there’s plenty of time in between. I was like, all right, it’s not bad. So yeah, I’ll keep it for the season. It’s chilly in April and May in New York."

By Tim Healey

timothy.healey@newsday.com@timbhealey

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.