Brandon Nimmo will be joining Jacob deGrom in Texas.

The purge in Flushing continues with David Stearns sending the longest-tenured Met, left fielder Brandon Nimmo and cash to the Texas Rangers for Gold Glove second baseman Marcus Semien.

After laying waste to the 2025 Mets coaching staff, Stearns has turned his axe to an underperforming 2025 roster that earned through months of poor play its designation as baseball’s most disappointing team. One cannot overstate how dismal and pathetic the Mets’ descent to playoff purgatory was and how it showcased the need for changes to be made to a core group that had challenged the Dodgers in the 2024 NLCS.

Why move Brandon Nimmo?

The most obvious reason is that Nimmo could bring back something of value.

Based on Fangraphs’ WAR, the thirty-two-year-old Nimmo was 109th in baseball with a Wins Above Replacement of 3.0. Nimmo played in 155 games, hit.262, had 154 hits, 92 RBI, 25 home runs and an OPS+ of 114 in 2025. Nimmo had a very good year at the plate. The Society of American Baseball Research’s Defensive Index, which is employed to determine Gold Glove awards, has Nimmo ranked fifth in the National League with a 1.6 SABR Defensive Index. The National League’s leader in left field and Gold Glove winner was Chicago Cub Ian Happ with a 9.1 SABR Defensive Index.

Nimmo has lost a step and never possesssed a strong throwing arm, but he is average or slightly above average in comparison to other left fielders in the National League. Nimmo wasn’t hurting the Mets in left field. But having an outfield with Brandon Nimmo and Juan Soto at the corners isn’t going to help in David Stearns’ quest for run prevention.

Stearns identified Nimmo as an asset that still held value, but was going to depreciate through the length of his current contract that ends in 2030. To receive back anything of value, Nimmo was a logical choice to be traded and Stearns didn’t need to increase Nimmo’s trade value with a package of accompanying players.

Mets fans like to put together trade packages that have no basis in reality. The deals I have seen for the Mets to acquire Tigers ace Tarik Skubal are something an eleven-year-old would concoct in his family’s fantasy baseball league. These fantastical trades always seem to include some members of this group: Jeff McNeil, Brett Baty, Mark Vientos, Ronny Mauricio and Luis Angel Acuna. All of these Mets represent huge question marks.

Is Jeff McNeil a .240 hitter or a .300 hitter?

Was Brett Baty’s second half of 2025 a prelude to a big 2026 or was it an aberration?

Will we see 2024 Mark Vientos (Impressive.) or 2025 Mark Vientos (Not so impressive.) in 2026?

And Ronnie Mauricio and Luis Angel Acuna are fringe major leaguers.

David Stearns took his most valuable positional player chip — not named Soto or Lindor — and addressed a pressing Mets need: Infield Defense

Marcus Semien’s Declining Offense

In his thirst for a second baseman that has plus range and perhaps could make an accurate throw to home plate (The Mets struggled with that in 2025.), David Stearns signed up to take on a 35-year-old Gold Glove second baseman whose best offensive years appear to be in the rearview mirror.

The thirty-five-year-old Marcus Semien has regressed offensively in both of the last two seasons. Before a foot injury ended his 2025 season prematurely, Semien had cobbled together a .669 OPS. You might want to gulp down a shot of Eagle Rare before you read the next factoid. Semien’s .669 OPS was the 10th-lowest amongst leaguewide qualified hitters. Gulp.

(I have visions of Felix Millan and Doug Flynn running through my head right now.)

Felix Millan

Semien isn’t Felix Milan or Doug Flynn, but Stearns will undoubtedly need to find a bat to replace Nimmo’s production in the lineup. Will the Mets attempt to reunite Clay Bellinger and Juan Soto in Citi Field’s outfield?

The other component of acquiring Semien is that there are only three years remaining on the 35-year-old’s contract. In comparison, Nimmo is signed through the 2030 season. And let’s remember that David Stearns did not give Brandon Nimmo an eight-year, $162 million dollar contract. Nimmo is not a Stearns guy.

In Semien, the Mets will be acquiring a ballplayer. The collective baseball IQ of the Mets will be raised with this addition and Stearns is not wrong in addressing that need.

Change

David Stearns realized that change was needed and that it would be professionally criminal to run it back with the same group in 2026. Nimmo is the first domino to be moved and we will likely see more in the next few weeks.

The Mets now need a first baseman, a closer, a starting pitcher, a center fielder, a left fielder and some bullpen arms. But second base is likely covered through 2028. And does the acquisition of Semien mean that the #3 Mets minor league prospect Jett Williams will be moved this offseason?

Changes are a coming.