He’s striking out more than you’d like, but he’s crushing the ball when he makes contact. Not many have done that long term.

By: Brian P. Mangan

Last November, I wrote an article called “Can Brandon Nimmo Cure His Strikeout Bug and Establish Himself in 2018?” At that time, that seemed to me to be the critical question for young Mr. Nimmo, and the one which would determine whether or not he was a major league regular.

It looks now like I was wrong about that. Despite striking out the eighth-most in the league, Brandon Nimmo has posted an excellent .265/.387/.503 (146 wRC+) this year and 3.4 WAR. Among the 30 players striking out 24.5% or more of the time this season, Nimmo’s been the third most productive hitter. Only Aaron Judge (156 wRC+) and Paul Goldschmidt (151 wRC+) have been better with such a strikeout rate.

How good has Nimmo been? Better than Giancarlo Stanton, Justin Upton, Cody Bellinger, Jesus Aguilar, Francisco Lindor, Javier Baez, and nearly everybody else — in fact, his 146 wRC+ ranks 10th in MLB overall.

This seems impossible, especially for a guy with only 15 home runs. So how is he doing it?