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Brandon Nimmo got the clarity he was seeking from general manager Billy Eppler on Sunday, after it became clear the direction of the Mets was changing from a “win-now” mode to “win-later.”
But that doesn’t mean he’s happy about it.
“It’s a little bit of a longer-term outlook, which is tough, and different than the conversations we had in the offseason’’ said Nimmo, who signed an eight-year, $162 million deal in December to stay with the Mets.
At the time, Eppler and team owner Steve Cohen were building the most expensive roster in MLB history, signing Nimmo and closer Edwin Diaz to lucrative new deals and adding Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga, Jose Quintana and David Robertson — among others — to the roster via free agency.
“But I get it,” Nimmo said of the stunning about-face, which has resulted in the trades of Max Scherzer and Robertson as the front office came to grips with a sub-.500 record and is now looking to the future and not a playoff race in 2023.
“I get the business side of it. We’ve tried two years of, really, just not caring what we spend and going to get the best players. We won 101 games one year and we don’t know what this year will end up being, but it’s not what we wanted. The unfortunate part is we need to try a different way.”
Eppler said Sunday that different way will include taking a step back from at least the top tier of free agency, while focusing on rebuilding the farm system, steps the team has begun to take with the trades of Robertson and Scherzer in exchange for minor league prospects.
The futures of some other veterans not signed to long-term deals, especially Velander, are in question, ahead of Tuesday’s 6 p.m. trade deadline.
Regardless of who else departs, the roster for the rest of this season, as well as 2024, will be dramatically changed — as well as younger — than the version they started with this year.
And the expectations will be altered, as well.
“It’s gonna be different,’’ Nimmo said. “The way I look at it, the Marlins weren’t supposed to compete this year and look where they are.”
It was Miami that traded for Robertson thanks to a surprisingly successful first four months of the season that landed the Marlins in the NL wild-card race despite a payroll that’s a fraction of the Mets’.
The Marlins opened the season with a luxury-tax payroll of about $121 million, according to Cot’s Contracts — the sixth-lowest in the majors — compared to the Mets’ $377 million.
And Miami entered Monday tied for the second NL wild-card spot, 6 ½ games ahead of the Mets.
“Just like things have dramatically changed in three months from the beginning of this year to now, things can dramatically change from the beginning of next season,’’ Nimmo said.
Still, Nimmo sounded like a player who knew he was on a team with a diminished trajectory, at least for the next year or so.
“I’m gonna take on a different role here,’’ Nimmo said. “I’ll see what we can do with the young guys and I’ll mentor them if they want help.”
Brett Baty, Francisco Alvarez and Mark Vientos are already receiving regular playing time and there’s a good chance more will follow, with Ronny Mauricio also on the horizon.
“It’s no longer, ‘Hey, do what you can and perform up here and don’t get too far away from who you are,’ ” Nimmo said of his advice to rookies. “Now is the time to try things out. I’ll be encouraging guys to feel comfortable trying things out at the big-league level that you weren’t before, when situations mattered to our playoff contingency.
“Now is the time to do it and see what you can figure out. I was fortunate to get those opportunities in 2017. I was able to do different things to find out what works at this level without worrying too much about it and take what did work into the next year and have success. Hopefully we get similar results from some of these young guys.”
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