A couple of days ago, Corné and myself were talking about exactly this on The Mets Junkies Podcast and it looks like someone is listening. Well, probably not, but Corné confidently called it.

📸 Starling Marte (left oblique soreness) is playing right field and standing in for at-bats (not swinging) in a minor league game today.

Buck Showalter has mentioned right field as a possibility for Marte during the regular season, though he's never played it in the Majors. pic.twitter.com/rrzuPc7kFX

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) March 23, 2022

Like many others, I had Starling Marte slated to be the Mets opening day center fielder, at least for the 2022 campaign. However, it turns out not to be the case. Marte confirmed with reporters on Tuesday that he plans to be playing right field.

The newly acquired outfielder has been taking it light since arriving to camp, as he’s nursing a minor oblique injury. However, he has been slightly turning it up, as we get closer and closer to Opening Day.

This should come as a vote of confidence for Brandon Nimmo, as he’s made huge strides defensively. Not only will he captain the outfield, but the Wyoming native could be poised to lead off for the Mets, as well.

It’s been no secret that Brandon Nimmo is open to working on an extension that would keep him in Orange & Blue for a long while.

1. Brandon Nimmo – L – CF
2. Starling Marte – R – RF
3. Francisco Lindor – S – SS
4. Pete Alonso – R – 1B
5. Robinson Cano – L – DH
6. Eduardo Escobar – S – 3B
7. Jeff McNeil – L – 2B
8. Mark Canha – R – LF
9. James McCann – R – C

Corné’s Cut:

As mentioned on the Podcast, playing Nimmo as our main center fielder is a no brainer to me. Here is the thing. Marte has been a solid center fielder and is definitely the more flashy outfielder to watch, I totally get that. But if you look at the metrics from last year, the younger Nimmo outplayed Marte by 1 OAA.

While that isn’t a large gap by any means, it’s worth noting that OAA is a range factored stat and with Nimmo having less Spring Speed, he still had better range. So what happens when Marte loses a step?

Another important part of this decision is that I like to want to keep Nimmo as a Met. A lot of fans want. I do believe Nimmo wants to be a center fielder and he wil leave the Mets and play center somewhere else.

Nimmo is a true center fielder and we should acknowledge that.

Photo Credit: New York Mets