The Mets managed to make a pre-Thanksgiving splash, trading Brandon Nimmo – their longest tenured player – to the Texas Rangers for Marcus Semien. The Rangers also received $5M as part of the deal. Though Nimmo himself was reportedly surprised by the move, rumors had been out there; Jeff Passan reported a week ago that the Mets were making both Nimmo and Kodai Senga available in trade talks. Couple Nimmo’s steep defensive decline (more on that later) with David Stearns’ repeated comments emphasizing defense and run prevention and the writing was somewhat on the wall here.

This is hardly the ending we’d have expected a few years ago. When Billy Eppler signed Nimmo to an 8-year, $162M deal in the 2022-23 offseason, he was a good defensive centerfielder with three straight seasons of at leas

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