Yesterday Jeff Passan lit the baseball world on fire a little bit when he announced that the New York Mets had traded Brandon Nimmo to the Texas Rangers for Marcus Semien.
Nimmo was a beloved longtime Met, while Semien was a 2023 World Series Champion with the Rangers, and they just got swapped for each other. There were rumors about Nimmo being dealt, he even reportedly contemplated for days over waiving his no-trade clause.
We really didn’t hear much about Semien being available for trade, though. This was a one-for-one deal, with the only other thing involved being is $5M from New York going to Texas to offset the money both ways.
What are these two teams getting in each of these players currently?
The Rangers are getting the better hitter here in Nimmo, who is about to enter his age-33 season and still has five years and $96.25 million remaining on his contract. When Nimmo initially inked his eight-year $162 million contract, he was a center fielder. In 2022, he had also just come off a 132 Weighted Runs Created+, .800 On Base Plus Slugging Percentage, and 5.5 Fangraphs Wins Above Replacement Season.
A couple of years later, Nimmo is now mainly playing left field, and his defense and sprint speed have taken a step back. Nimmo’s accounted for 5 Defensive Runs Saved, 4 Outs Above Average, and 0 Fielding Run Value over the last two years in a combined 2377.2 innings in left field. Nimmo, playing center field, has graded out at -16 DRS, 4 OAA, and 3 FRV since 2022. His sprint speed over the last four seasons in order reads as 28.6, 28, 28, and 27.3 this past season as well.
Nimmo’s also experienced a decline in his bat as it’s declined every single season except for one since the 2020 Covid-shortened season, where he had a 149 wRC+. From 2021 onwards, Nimmo in order has had a 135 wRC+, 132 wRC+, 129 wRC+, 108 wRC+, and a 114 wRC+ this season. Now you kind of get the gist of why New York was willing to trade him, even though he’s been in their system for fourteen years and is absolutely beloved down there. This is business at the end of the day, and when a guy is in his 30s and declining on both sides of the ball, decisions have to be made.
The Mets are getting a glove-first guy in Marcus Semien to patrol second base for them for the foreseeable future. Semien was an All-Star in 2024, a Gold Glove winner in 2025, and is a consummate professional. Semien is about to enter his age-35 season and is in year five of a seven-year $175M contract with three years and $72M remaining on that contract.
Semien’s also seen a decline in his offense over the last couple of seasons as he’s had under a .700 OPS in back-to-back seasons. Semien’s also seen a decline in his offense. In years past, he usually would be good for a really good offensive season, and then the year after that, it would taper off, just like a cycle. Ever since joining Texas in order, Semien’s had a 107 wRC+, 128 wRC+, 101 wRC+, and he just came off an 89 wRC+ season, which was the worst offensive output of his career. This is probably just what Semien is nowadays, since he’s up there in age, and a good amount of his underlying metrics and expected stats don’t look that visually appealing anymore.
What does bode well, though, for Semien is his really stout defense and still his sprint speed, which ranks him as higher than Nimmo at 28.5. In terms of defense, Semien combined for 31 DRS, 40 OAA, and 33 FRV over the last 3 seasons. Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns has been clamoring for run prevention, with it being a high target for them this offseason. He’s been true to his word so far by getting a great defensive second baseman in Semien. Stearns also stated today that he knew New York couldn’t just run it back with the same team, which is why he had to shake things up.
The Mets now have two holes to fill in the outfield alongside superstar right fielder Juan Soto, with left field and center field being up for grabs. Stearns had mentioned that one of their best prospects, Carson Benge, is one of the candidates to be fighting for their starting center field spot. Benge is the 21st-ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline, is 22 years old, and is coming off a .857 OPS season in the minors. Benge could use some more seasoning in Triple-A, though, as he only hit .178 with a .583 OPS, and a 53 wRC+, even though his underlying metrics look enticing.
That now leaves left field, assuming that Jeff McNeil is either on his way out of Queens or is just in a super-utility role. New York could go in a multitude of ways, especially by inquiring about Cody Bellinger, who plays superb left field. They could also aim for more offense and go for Kyle Tucker, who’s not as good a defender as Bellinger, but he’s clearly the better hitter. Based on everything Stearns has said this offseason, it feels like they want to prioritize their defense over their offense, so Bellinger would make more sense according to his ideology.
In terms of the Rangers, they could push the top prospect button and call up sixth-ranked prospect Sebastian Walcott. He’s 19 years old and is currently playing both shortstop and third base. Texas has superstar Corey Seager at shortstop and the promising Josh Jung at third base, so theoretically, second base would have to be the position that Walcott would play sometime in 2026. The Rangers could also opt for a stopgap guy at second base for the time being, since Walcott only had a .741 OPS in Double-A last season. They could also opt for someone like Josh Smith to just occupy that position early on.
Overall, this was an interesting trade for both sides. New York washes their hands of the Nimmo contract and only has to pay $5M in total for the next five seasons for him. Texas opened up the second base position for their number one prospect and bid farewell to their former unofficial captain and World Series champion in Semien. It’ll also be really intriguing to see how the Mets continue to shake up their outfield, and who the opening day second baseman is for the Rangers.
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