The Mets have completed a deal with the Texas Rangers to swap Brandon Nimmo for Marcus Semien. Nimmo has waived his no-trade clause and accepted the trade.
Nimmo was the longest tenured Met on the current
roster. A first round pick in 2011, he debuted in 2016 and has racked up nearly 4,400 PA and more than 1,000 games over the past decade with the major league squad. Billy Eppler signed Nimmo to an 8-year, $162M deal in the 2022-23 offseason, a deal largely predicated on Nimmo’s ability to continue playing center for a few more years while maintaining an OBP-heavy offensive output 20-30% better than league average. Unfortunately, things haven’t worked out on either side of the ball, with Nimmo turning into a poor left fielder with a much less impressive batting line. That made his contract something of an albatross, particularly given the Mets’ stated focus of improving their defense this offseason.
Marcus Semien’s deal is also somewhat ugly. He’s a 35-year-old second baseman coming off a season with an 89 wRC+ and is owed $72M over the next three years. There’s positives if you look under the hood though. Semien was a bit unlucky by xwOBA and played his home games in one of the most pitcher-friendly stadiums in the big leagues. He’s also still an elite defensive second baseman and has shown little signs of decline there. It’s quite possible that some tweaks at the plate get Semien back to a roughly league-average line, while his defense will be a significant upgrade on the right side.
From a roster building perspective, this move will increase the Mets’ luxury tax number by roughly $5M ($25M for Semien, $20.25M for Nimmo). Semien’s deal is two-years shorter than Nimmo’s at this point, however, opening up additional long term flexibility. This also clears the way in left field for a player with a better bat, a better glove, or both while simultaneously adding another option at 2B in the wake of Jeff McNeil’s surgery for TOS. Even if it’s painful to see a long-time Met go, this is ultimately a move to that brings in a better roster fit while opening up interesting possibilities in both the short and long term.
