Part of the Mets’ many tasks to gain credibility and perhaps contention is to unclutter their corner-outfield glut, so among other things Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo cease playing center field.
The Mets say they are built around their rotation, but those are just more hollow words until they prioritize defense.
Their best future team has Conforto and Yoenis Cespedes (when healthy) at the corners. Nimmo, even with a second-half regression, has shown enough to be a placeholder until Cespedes returns and then at least a capable fourth outfielder. That leaves Jay Bruce as the odd man, in part because of the redundancy that he is a lefty hitter like Conforto and Nimmo.