Brandon Nimmo saw his first game action in nearly two weeks on Friday night, playing a full nine innings in a 4-3 loss to the Phillies.
The Mets outfielder returned relatively quickly after suffering a hamstring strain and hitting the IL on Sept. 4, and said he felt some relative soreness after the game, but otherwise checked out feeling healthy.
"It's been 10 days since I played nine innings, or actually it's been 13. It's not something you necessarily hop right back into," Nimmo said. "I'm a little sore, just muscle sore, and I expect to be a little sore tomorrow, but all things considered, pretty good for the time I missed and how quickly I came back, so I'm happy about that."
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Nimmo went 1-for-5 with a strikeout and a run scored, and represents one of the team's most valuable offensive contributors, batting and even .300 with an .828 OPS on the season. But in the short term, he isn't sure how regularly he will be in the starting lineup, even uncertain about his status for Saturday after jumping right back into a full nine innings of work.
"I think that's gonna be open for conversation," Nimmo said. "After the game, they said it would depend on my workload, and that was a four-hour game right there, so we'll see what they have to say. But they've been tracking my movements. We're trying to take a more mathematical and scientific approach to this than just 'how do you feel?' and I'm all for that."
The Mets will likely play it safe with Nimmo, and he is fine with that, knowing how quickly he returned from an injury that normally takes much longer, but even with two weeks to go in the season, he wants to make sure he is available the rest of the way, even if it means having to take some time off in between.
"I want to be available the rest of the season for the guys, not just tonight, so we'll talk about that after," Nimmo said. "Regardless, I want to be available, I want to play, but we also have to be smart about this because I have gotten back in such a small a part of time."
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