After it became clear the direction of the Mets was changing from a “win-now” mode to “win-later”, Brandon Nimmo left clear he is not happy about it.
“It’s a little bit of a longer-term outlook, which is tough, and different than the conversations we had in the offseason’’ said Nimmo, who signed an eight-year, $162 million deal in December to stay with the Mets.
At the time, Eppler and team owner Steve Cohen were building the most expensive roster in MLB history. They signed Nimmo and added Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga, Jose Quintana and David Robertson to the roster via free agency.
“I get the business side of it. We’ve tried two years of, really, just not caring what we spend and going to get the best players. We won 101 games one year and we don’t know what this year will end up being, but it’s not what we wanted. The unfortunate part is we need to try a different way”, he said.
Eppler said Sunday that different way will include taking a step back from at least the top tier of free agency, while focusing on rebuilding the farm system.
Regardless of who else departs, the roster for the rest of this season, as well as 2024, will be dramatically changed than the version they started with this year – also the expectations.
“It’s gonna be different,’’ Nimmo said. “The way I look at it, the Marlins weren’t supposed to compete this year and look where they are.”
Still, Nimmo sounded like a player who knew he was on a team with a diminished trajectory, at least for the next year or so.
“I’m gonna take on a different role here,’’ Nimmo said. “I’ll see what we can do with the young guys and I’ll mentor them if they want help.”
