By Kerry Drake
WyoFile.com
Brandon Nimmo has played on the biggest stage in Major League Baseball — New York City — for nearly a decade with the Mets. He’s spent his entire professional career with the organization since it gambled on the Cheyenne native 2011, making Nimmo the only Wyoming player to ever be drafted in the first round, lucky No. 13 overall.
On July 10, Nimmo played his 1,000th game with the Mets, a remarkable milestone in an era when MLB players typically sign in free agency wherever they get the biggest offer. In Nimmo’s case that turned out to be the same team that plucked him out of relative obscurity in Wyoming, which doesn’t sanction baseball as a high school sport. Our unpredictable spring weather makes it difficult to schedule flexibly or maintain fields.
But Nimmo was a special talent, and scouts were in regular attendance at his games with the Cheyenne American Legion Post 6 team, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported at the time. I decided that the next time my Casper newspaper job took me to the capital city, I would play hooky and catch one of his afternoon games. A lifetime baseball fan, I wanted to see what all the excitement was about.
I’m certainly not a gifted scout who can spot a future star, but during the one game I saw, Nimmo was impressive at the plate, in the field and on the basepaths. I left hoping that my favorite team, the New York Yankees, had him in their sights.
But it was the Mets who, admittedly, shocked their fans by taking a Cheyenne East High School kid in the first round. In its Nimmo profile the next day, CBS News called the outfielder “a prospect who could one day go from country bumpkin to city slicker.”
The Mets paid Nimmo a $2.1 million bonus, backing up the confidence they had in him with a lot of cold hard cash.
During the next five years, Nimmo played in the Mets’ minor-league system. In 2012, he was a member of the Brooklyn Cyclones. In a 2024 New York Post interview, his father said his son quickly learned the grace period with New York fans was only one day.
“Brandon said, ‘The first day I was here, they were all my friend. The second day, they were all telling me how worthless I was and the Mets wasted their money,’” Ron Nimmo recalled.
The player once described a heart-to-heart talk he had with his father while struggling with the Mets’ Triple-A Las Vegas team in early 2016 about what he might do if his career stalled. Nimmo said he would consider going to college.
Fortunately, Nimmo’s old American Legion coach, Tagg Lain, was visiting Las Vegas and watched three of his games. Nimmo credited Lain with giving him some mechanical advice about his hitting, along with some tips on improving his mental approach to the game.
Nimmo said Las Vegas manager Wally Backman told him later in the season he’d never seen a player make such a big improvement, and popped the news that the Mets just called him up. “What you’re doing now plays,” he recalled Backman telling him. “If you keep doing that, you’ll play a long time in the big leagues.”
That’s exactly what’s happened. It’s taken a lot of hard work but he’s not only played a decade in the majors, he’s become a fan favorite at Citi Field — which is saying a lot considering he’s in the same lineup as stars Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso.
Along the way, Nimmo has frequently lost playing time to various injuries, including a partially collapsed lung, bruised hand, strained hamstrings and a bulging disc in his neck. But on the field, he’s been a solid performer and a gem of an outfielder.
In a memorable on-the-field interview with the MLB Network in 2023, Nimmo was asked whether he gets more satisfaction from making a diving catch, catching a ball on the run or robbing a hitter of a home run. His eyes lit up when he confirmed it’s the latter.
A video showed an overjoyed Nimmo scaling the center-field wall to reach over and grab a blast from the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Justin Turner, then land back on the field, yelling and flexing his muscles. “When you do something that big leaguers are impressed that you did,” Nimmo said, “that’s a really cool feeling.”
Nimmo has hit 128 home runs in his Mets career and has a lifetime .261 batting average. Two of those home runs — including a grand slam — came on April 28 when he tied a team record by driving in nine runs against the Washington Nationals.
Nimmo became a free agent in 2022 and other teams expressed significant interest, but ultimately, the Mets opened up their wallet and re-signed him to an eight-year deal worth $162 million.
Not bad for a Wyoming kid whose parents built him and his older brother, Bryce, a 40-by-60-foot insulated barn in their backyard complete with heaters, a batting cage, hitting nets and a pitching machine so they could practice year-round and learn their craft. Bryce went on to play for the University of Nebraska.
Nimmo’s new contract will keep him with the Mets through the 2030 season and with the fans he’s been impressively committed to over the years.
His dad told the New York Post that his son stays late after games, giving fans autographs in the Citi Field parking lot.
“I think the security guys kind of wish he would go home sometimes,” Ron Nimmo said. “Many times it’s midnight or later by the time he leaves the field, and there will still be fans and he’ll sign for everybody who’s waiting. And then everybody gets to go home after that.”
Nimmo is the only active MLB player from Wyoming — and just the 16th native of the Equality State who’s made it to the big leagues — but I don’t think sports fans here give him enough credit for everything he’s accomplished.
The University of Wyoming long ago ended its baseball program, and without it being a high school sport, the chances of another first-round draft pick emerging from here are very slim.
Still, because Nimmo has conquered long odds, he remains an inspiration to young baseball players everywhere. When he speaks to little leaguers, this is how Nimmo often introduces himself: “I’m from Wyoming. I’m not supposed to play baseball.”
But of course he was. Legions of Mets fans — and even some of us Yankees boosters — know he’s one of the sport’s best role models and ambassadors. Wyoming should be proud.
Veteran Wyoming journalist Kerry Drake has covered Wyoming for more than four decades, previously as a reporter and editor for the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle and Casper Star-Tribune. He lives in Cheyenne and can be reached at kerry.drake33@yahoo.com.
WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
