WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — After veteran players departed the Mets last season, Brandon Nimmo took inventory in the clubhouse and started formulating an idea for spring training.
Max Scherzer, the ringleader in the room the previous two springs, wouldn’t be there.
Other veterans who might have assumed the role also had been traded.
Nimmo realized his time had arrived.
The Mets would need to blend as a team off the field, and Nimmo planned to help orchestrate it.
With the Mets scheduled for a later reporting time to camp on Thursday, Nimmo and his wife, Chelsea, a night earlier hosted the first team bonding event of the spring — a PopStroke golf outing for Mets players, staff and their families.
“It’s kind of the baton has been passed off to me to be the mentor and leader on some of these things,” Nimmo said at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie before the Mets departed for an exhibition game in West Palm Beach.
David Wright and Curtis Granderson were among the players that served in such leadership positions for the Mets early in Nimmo’s career.
In previous years the Mets used bowling nights, card games and fishing expeditions as bonding opportunities.
Scherzer hosted a crawfish boil at his home last year in spring training, and the Mets also held a talent show about midway through camp.
“I’ve been able to learn from guys and pick up things that they feel were really helpful to their success in the past,” Nimmo said. “And now I will use that now toward the latter half of my career.”
Nimmo placed attendance for Wednesday’s gathering at 95 percent — including coaches, clubhouse attendants and kitchen staff. He said if the Mets hold another event, it will be after the 26-man roster becomes clearer.
PopStroke is a form of miniature golf, on difficult putting greens.
“It’s a lot harder than mini-golf,” Adam Ottavino said. “It’s kind of like real greens …with fake bunkers.”
Ottavino, who noted that he “messed up” by recording 6s on two holes, cited the importance of such team bonding events in spring training.
“If you have nothing going on it’s hard to come together the way you want to,” Ottavino said. “It definitely helps to feel like you are colleagues, so it’s good to do stuff together, whether it’s a dinner … the first [event] down here is always good just because there’s a lot of people that have families down here that are probably cooped up all day waiting for their husbands to get home, to be able to go out a little bit is good.”
Ottavino, about to begin his third season with the Mets, said he viewed Nimmo as a team leader from the moment he arrived.
And the fact Nimmo still has seven years remaining on the $162 million contract he received in December 2022 helps with his credibility within the clubhouse.
“I am sure it’s taking him a while to become more vocal, because it’s not really his nature,” Ottavino said. “But he’s such a good leader by example. Nobody is more professional than Nimmo on this team or any team.
“People watch him and they follow his lead because he’s a player that has evolved and gotten better, which is what they want to do … on a team you certainly hope somebody steps up and Nimmo is one of those guys.”