Former New York Mets reliever Adam Ottavino shared a story about Brandon Nimmo on his Baseball & Coffee podcast that just goes to show how closely players monitor their media coverage.
According to Ottavino, Nimmo confronted SNY’s Andy Martino in a hallway after he published a hypothetical Yankees-Mets combined roster in 2024 that had Alex Verdugo as the left fielder instead of Nimmo.
“Brandon got pissed when they did like a Yankees-Mets team a couple of years ago, and Andy Martino had Alex Verdugo as the left fielder and not Nimmo,” Ottavino said. “Like, I saw Nimmo go at Andy Martino in the hallway about that. And I was like, ‘Damn, you read the paper like that? You care about what the talking heads say that much?’ That’s surprising to me.”
Martino confirmed the confrontation happened, responding to a clip of Ottavino’s comments on social media. “True story, but Brandon is such a good guy that, of course, we ended up having a great conversation. One of the [best] players I’ve covered,” Martino wrote.
Three weeks after his initial “Mankees” roster, Martino published a follow-up with the headline “What kind of idiot picks Yankees’ Alex Verdugo over Mets’ Brandon Nimmo?”
Nimmo had clearly made his point.
Since Mankees day, Nimmo has done nothing but make my initial choice look ridiculous. His OPS between the first game of the Yankees series and the beginning of play on Thursday was 1.082 — and that was before he drove in three runs with a bases-clearing double against the Nationals (Nimmo denies that he is hitting the ball harder because he imagines my face on it).
In that same span, Verdugo’s OPS is, gulp, .606. That didn’t help my case, but one doesn’t make decisions based on hot and cold streaks. Verdugo is a very good player, and his slump will end.
Ottavino also mentioned Nimmo wasn’t thrilled about all the Francisco Lindor-as-future-captain talk, though he acknowledged that observation was based on limited information from one article he’d read.
“Nimmo’s a very gentle, nice, great human being, but I think he’s a little proud of a player,” Ottavino added.
Nimmo’s name has appeared in trade rumors this offseason, with the Mets reportedly willing to move him despite his full no-trade clause as they look to create payroll — and roster — flexibility. The Cheyenne, Wyoming, native is coming off a season in which he hit .262/.324/.436 with career highs of 25 home runs and 92 RBIs, and he’s got five years and $101.25 million remaining on his contract.
As for Verdugo — the player Martino originally selected over Nimmo — he was designated for assignment by the Braves in July after hitting .239/.296/.289 with zero home runs in 56 games. He started in left field for the Yankees in the 2024 World Series and was out of baseball less than a year later.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.