The Mets will promote outfield prospect Brandon Nimmo, Jeremiah Johnke of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle (Nimmo’s hometown paper) tweets. He will take the roster spot of Michael Conforto, who will be optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas, as MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo tweets.
[Related: Updated Mets Depth Chart]
Nimmo, the 13th overall pick in the 2011 draft, has moved slowly through the minor leagues, but he’s done well in his second season at Las Vegas this year, batting .328/.409/.508 — solid numbers even in a very good environment for hitters. MLB.com currently ranks Nimmo the Mets’ fourth-best prospect, praising his batting eye (he has 290 career minor league walks against 454 strikeouts) but noting that it remains to be seen whether the power he’s demonstrated in batting practice will begin to turn up in games. (He has just five homers this season, although he does have 16 doubles and seven triples.) Nimmo might require a move to a corner spot eventually, but for now he’s a center fielder, having played 48 games there so far in 2016. It’s unclear how the Mets will use him, although their current primary center fielder, Yoenis Cespedes, hasn’t rated well at that position this season and has more career games in left.
Conforto’s demotion, meanwhile, must come as a disappointment for both player and team. He burst onto the scene last year as a rookie and actually hasn’t hit terribly this season overall, with his 24 extra-base hits mostly compensating for his poor .222 average. He has struggled horribly of late, however, with just a .399 OPS in the last 28 days, and could perhaps use a stay in Las Vegas to fix what isn’t working. Conforto skipped Triple-A completely on his way to the big leagues last year, so he’ll get his first experience at the level in the coming weeks.
chrisc
good move, conforto can use some time in AAA to get better, he will be back soon im sure, lets see what Brandon can do to help
jdizzle ATL Braves
Call up Travis tajeron!!!
Snake65
Exactly. I feel bad for him. He’s one of those guys that get past over. So his fielding is just OK he can hit. And in this game offense first then find him a position
docmilo5
The kid, Conforto, could use some time off to give his wrist some time to heal. They injected his wrist with cortisone a few weeks back and sent him back to work. Wrists can affect your swing just a little.
dstuart
Really hope Mike figures it out, dude can flat out rake.
Jorge Soler Powered
Apparently not.
User 2997803866
The Mets prove their incompetence once again. DL Conforto, he’s obviously hurt.
mas22
Yeah he’s obviously hurt since he did bad
angelsinthetroutfield
Don’t know how strong a prospect Nimmo is but is there any chance the Angels could get him or Conforto for Escobar and Cron (or an arm shoe/smith/salas)
RunDMC
No. Escobar doesn’t have that kind of value. Conforto is still healing from a wrist injury and could use some time slowly coming back while not taking up a roster spot, while also giving a look to Nimmo, who could have a similar effect to Conforto last year. He could help that struggling offense. I don’t see them trading either of them for Escobar, though they have the depth (what LAA doesn’t have) to be able to swing a trade without involving them.
metseventually 2
Yeah, absolutely not.
mpguy
This is why teams have to be careful about jumping kids from AA to the majors. There’s a lot to learn at that AAA step. These kids often look good for a while, then the league catches up to them.
RunDMC
Coming back from injury and the 2nd year also has an effect on rookie. Combine both of those and he can use some time off from a team struggling to find offense. He won’t be affected long-term.
staypuft
Learn to hit lefties, kid.