Does Brandon Nimmo believe 2024 Mets can compete for playoffs?

New York Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo has echoed team president of baseball operations David Stearns and suggested the club can compete for a playoff spot this year despite what many fans consider to be an underwhelming offseason for the organization. 

"I think going into this year they were trying to be much more competitive but in a different manner," Nimmo said during the latest edition of "The Show" podcast with MLB insiders Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman, per Ben Krimmel of SNY. "I know [Mets owner Steve Cohen] is very much of the mindset of being adaptable, and if you don’t adapt you die. And so if you try it one way and it doesn’t work, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to do it that way again. I think he’s willing to try it a few different ways and I think [Stearns] had a different idea going into this season of how we could compete." 

Cohen assembled MLB's most expensive squad in 2023 and then watched it fall apart during games and allegedly behind the scenes before the owner signed off on a summer fire sale that included trading co-aces Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, among other noteworthy players. 

After the Mets failed to sign two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani and Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto in free agency, Joel Sherman of the New York Post wrote for a piece published in January that Stearns wanted "to assemble a 2024 contender by improving the depth and defense around" talent already on the Mets without "tying up long-term future payroll" on free agents. 

"Ultimately I think it falls to if our guys can stay healthy," Nimmo continued. "And that goes to the rest of the league as well… First and foremost for us is just going into spring training I’m gonna be preaching be taking care of your bodies and looking toward the long-term and not just the short-term because we’re gonna be needing everybody pulling on one end of the rope in order to be successful."

The PECOTA projections released by Baseball Prospectus on Tuesday gave the 2024 Mets a 49.2% chance to make the playoffs. Nimmo acknowledged during the podcast that the Mets are "definitely gonna be the underdogs in this season" after the club went 75-87 last year, so perhaps he and others inside the clubhouse can use such lowered expectations as motivation ahead of Opening Day.