2 slams in 4 days! Nimmo, Mets reaping rewards of changed approach

NEW YORK -- Two and a half years ago, Brandon Nimmo made the first in a series of swing and approach changes that redefined him as a player. Long one of the league’s best at reaching base, Nimmo became more selectively aggressive. He ceased focusing as fully on working counts. Instead, Nimmo began aiming to do as much damage as possible in every at-bat.

While that sort of wholesale change will always require a tradeoff, Nimmo -- now in his third season with this not-so-new identity -- has clearly reaped the benefits of it. The longtime Mets outfielder hit his second grand slam in four days Saturday at Citi Field, leading his team to a 12-6 thumping of the Yankees and a four-game winning streak.

“To have two grand slams in a week, it’s pretty crazy,” Nimmo said.

Nimmo, who also hit a grand slam on April 28, is the first Met with three in a season since Carlos Beltrán in 2006. He’s on pace for 32 homers, which would shatter his previous best of 24, as well as a career-high 94 RBIs.

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Then again, if every day were like Saturday, the Mets would light the entire record book on fire. In addition to Nimmo’s slam, Pete Alonso hit two homers to move within six of Darryl Strawberry’s franchise record of 252, Francisco Lindor scored four runs and the Mets plated at least a dozen for the third time this season. It was enough offense to lift Frankie Montas, who allowed two homers of his own but hung around long enough to record his first Mets win.

“Us scoring a lot of runs early gave Frankie and the rest of the pitching staff a little bit of room to breathe,” Alonso said.

For Nimmo, who started the party with his first-inning shot off Carlos Rodón, the recent slam surge is partially the product of circumstance; Nimmo cannot hit grand slams if the bases are empty when he comes to bat. But Nimmo’s ability to take advantage of those situations has been no coincidence.

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Three Spring Trainings ago, after re-signing with the Mets on an eight-year, $162 million contract, Nimmo began working with hitting coach Jeremy Barnes on revamping his swing. The team’s internal metrics told Nimmo he could hit the ball as hard as just about anyone. Nimmo’s career-high homer total of 17 suggested that he wasn’t taking full advantage of those abilities.

More than two years’ worth of mechanical and biomechanical tweaks have led to the current version of Nimmo, which is quite different from the player who earned that $162 million contract in the first place. Since 2023, Nimmo has produced a .338 on-base percentage, a drop of about 50 points from his career mark to that point. But his hard-hit rate has shot up from 38.8 to 48.4%. Unsurprisingly, significantly more of those hits are flying out of ballparks.

“He’s been locked in now for a good stretch,” manager Carlos Mendoza said, referring specifically to Nimmo’s most recent run of productivity, which began in mid-June. “Driving the baseball with authority, controlling the strike zone, going the other way, taking tough pitches -- and then even the ones he’s fouling off, there’s conviction, there’s balance. There’s a lot to like from his at-bats right now.”

Some of Nimmo’s hard hits are even occurring with the bases loaded. For those wondering, Nimmo still has 19 games left to try to smash another grand slam in July, which would match the Major League record for slams in a calendar month. He has already tied Beltrán, Mike Piazza, Robin Ventura and John Milner for the most in a single Mets season, and he’s halfway to the Major League record, which Don Mattingly and Travis Hafner share with six.

“I’ve been playing a long time, and I haven’t hit two grand slams in a week,” Nimmo said. “It’s a really fun feeling, especially in this atmosphere. It feels like playoff baseball. The Subway Series is always so much energy. To do that in the first inning was really, really cool.”