The evening of Sunday, November 23, the New York Mets and Texas Rangers swapped veterans Marcus Semien and Brandon Nimmo, who had to waive a no-trade clause in his contract for the deal to proceed, with the Mets sending an additional $5 million to Texas to offset the difference in their remaining salaries.
Nimmo was a member of the Mets’ major league club since their Wild Card season in 2016. But he’d been in the organization since 2011, when then-first-year general manager Sandy Alderson selected him 13th overall out of East High School in Cheyenne, Wyoming, (a high school without a baseball team) in that year’s June Amateur Draft. So, in total, he spent 15 seasons as a Met.
Nimmo became an everyday starting outfielder (though over the years he’s missed triple-digit games due to injuries) in 2018 and remained an indispensable part of the lineup for the next eight seasons. During those eight seasons, he batted .261/364/441, for a .805 OPS, with 52 stolen bases and a well-above-average OPS+ of 125 (100 is average). He hit mostly out of the leadoff spot, so his .364 OBP (as a starter and over his entire career), nearly .50 points above average, often put opposing starting pitchers in a pickle right off of the bat.
After Nimmo’s rookie contract expired in 2022, the Mets and general manager Billy Eppler bet on him and signed him to an eight-year deal worth $162 million ($20.25 million AAV)
Nimmo, who will be 33 years old on Opening Day in 2026, has declined over the past couple seasons and has transitioned from a mostly-center fielder to mostly-left fielder . Since the start of 2024, though he’s been healthier than ever and played more games than ever, his stats have taken a tumble. In these 306 games, he’s batted .244/.326/.418, with just slightly-above-average OBP, OPS (.744) and OPS+ (110). Additionally, his defense and athleticism have declined. Though he entered the league as a well-above average runner (90th percentile), he only reached the 46th percentile in 2025, a below-average mark. Worse, 2025 was only the second season (the first was during COVID-19 in 2020) in which Nimmo’s defensive OAA (outs above average) was negative.
The Rangers expect to pay Nimmo a total of $105 million over the next five seasons, with his contract expiring after the 2030 season when he will be 38. They are acquiring a useful but aging, statistically declining and injury-prone corner outfielder, who will likely take the place of Adolis García, whom Texas recently non-tendered.
The Mets, as they tend to do, acquired the older and more rapidly declining player in the deal in Marcus Semien. A 35-year-old second baseman, Semien was drafted by the Chicago White Sox out of the University of California, Berkeley in the 6th round of the same draft in which the Mets took Nimmo.
He spent two seasons as a marginal 3rd baseman for Chicago before he was traded alongside pitcher Chris Bassitt, first baseman Rangel Ravelo and catcher Josh Phegley to the Oakland Athletics in exchange for pitchers Michael Ynoa and Jeff Samardzija. He spent six seasons as Oakland’s starting shortstop and leadoff hitter and developed into somewhat of a slugger, with his most productive offensive season coming, like many, in 2019, when he batted .285/.369/.522, with 33 home runs, 92 RBIs and 123 runs. He was consistently one of the league’s worst defensive shortstops (though he did save a no-hitter for his now-Mets-teammate Sean Manaea in 2018), so the Toronto Blue Jays were wise to move him to second base in 2021 when he signed a year-long deal worth $18 million. In just one year, he went from -11 OAA at shortstop, the worst in the league, to 4 OAA at second base, one of the best in the league.
Toronto didn’t hold on to Semien, though, and after a year, he signed a seven-year, $175 million ($25 million AAV) contract with Texas. Though he won his first and only World Series title in 2023 when the Rangers defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks, Semien’s time in Texas has mostly signaled his decline. After an incredible World Series season in which he batted .276 with 29 homers, 100 RBIs, 122 runs and American League-leading 185 hits and 162 games, Semien has spent his last two seasons, like Nimmo has, declining. Since the beginning of 2024, he’s batted a measly .234 with below-average OBP (.307) and OPS (.686).
The Mets expect to pay Semien a total of $72 million over the next three seasons, with his contract expiring after the 2028 season when he will be 38. New York is, like Texas, acquiring a useful but aging and offensively declining player. But in this case, the Mets are acquiring an elite defender whose only major injury since 2017 is a broken foot. He will likely fill the Mets second base void, which has most recently been taken by the allegedly-high potential of the always-underperforming Brett Baty.
Even though it seems that Texas got the better hitter in the deal, and they very well may have, this trade opens up an outfield spot for the Mets. With owner Steve Cohen’s seemingly ceaseless money supply, it seems that they will likely pursue either Kyle Tucker or Cody Bellinger on a long-term deal to complement star right fielder Juan Soto, and to hopefully not ever repeat what happened this past season.
