Nimmo taking it step by step with lingering foot injury

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- By late October, Brandon Nimmo says, the pain level in his left foot had reached an “eight or nine out of 10.” Nimmo still doesn’t know what he did to aggravate his plantar fasciitis in National League Division Series Game 3, but tweak it he did. The pain lingered for the rest of that series and into the NL Championship Series.

At one point during that run, Nimmo recalled commiserating with Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who was also limping around the field with a sprained right ankle.

“We’re two peas in a pod over here,” Nimmo recalled Freeman telling him. “Neither of us can run.”

An offseason of rest has not solved the problem for Nimmo, but it has diminished the situation from a crisis to a mere concern. Over the past four months, Nimmo has spent countless hours in physical therapy. He has done soft tissue work on his foot, strength work and shock therapy. He received a platelet-rich plasma injection. He began using orthotics inserts last season, and he has been experimenting with different types of cleats.

On Friday, Nimmo sprinted at 91 percent, as measured by a fitness tracking vest that he wears around the Mets’ Spring Training complex. (That number is measured against his historic top speed, which in 2024 was an above-average 28 feet per second.) Nimmo is purposely taking this progression slowly, and he expects to miss at least a week or so of Grapefruit League games -- a schedule that, for him, is normal.

The goal is not merely to be ready for Opening Day, but to do so without his foot being any sort of issue at all.

“It’s a good place to be,” Nimmo said. “We’re trending upwards. We’re going to keep stacking good days on good days. Really, what you don’t want to do is just not push it too hard right now, because it’s trending in the right direction. So we’ll take those steps accordingly.”

Nimmo has reason to be confident in his work. An injury-prone player early in his career, Nimmo altered several of his training methods several years ago with excellent results. He has played in at least 151 games each of the past three seasons.

But last year was a down year for Nimmo, at least partially because of the foot issue that began bothering him in May. At the time, Nimmo was able to manage his plantar fasciitis without major issue -- at least until October. Even so, he produced the lowest full-season on-base (.327) and slugging (.399) percentages of his career. Much of Nimmo’s production occurred during a four-week hot streak from mid-June through mid-July, with notable slumps on either side.

By October, Nimmo was running on the outside of his foot in hopes of minimizing pain. He avoided surgery, but he didn’t feel quite right until mid-January.

Now, Nimmo’s foot feels normal again -- at least to the extent that it can. For the rest of his career, Nimmo will need to manage the issue, staying proactive with physical therapy and strength training. If all goes well this spring, however, the plantar fasciitis should prove inconsequential enough that Nimmo won’t need regular rest or even DH days.

“Our goal is to be trying to work ahead of the schedule rather than being reactive to it,” Nimmo said. “There’s nothing that says that it can’t [come back], but definitely you’re trying to do everything that I did this offseason in order to keep it from happening again.”