Mets’ Brandon Nimmo works on putting best foot forward while preparing for long season

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — The good news for Brandon Nimmo, in returning from the severe case of plantar fasciitis suffered last October, is that he knew the precise status of his running ability upon showing up Friday at Clover Park.

Right down to the decimal point, actually.

“I’m at like 91% now,” Nimmo said, fresh from the workout, still in uniform. “So we’re in a really good spot. It’s a good place to be. We’re trending upward.”

That’s not to say, however, Nimmo considers the debilitating issue that impacted his left foot totally behind him. After it crept up during the playoffs, at the end of the Division Series victory over the Phillies, Nimmo struggled to play on it in the NLCS, even joking with the hobbled Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman about their mobility predicament.

Obviously, Nimmo relies much more on his legs than Freeman, with considerably larger real estate to cover in leftfield, and that’s why anything that limits his running is no small concern. And this condition isn’t an easy fix. Just the opposite. When I asked if switching his orthotics — the protective insoles in his cleats — were part of the solution, I didn’t expect Nimmo to reply with the barrage of rehab tactics that he endured this past winter and likely still requires in the days ahead.

“I had orthotics last year,” Nimmo said. “But we did a lot of (physical therapy) on it. We did some shock therapy on it, a lot of soft tissue stuff. We got a PRP injection in there, and then worked a lot on strengthening the foot. So there were a lot of elements that went into it. Also trying to find different cleats that work. It wasn’t a one-pronged approach. There was many parts to it.”

Nimmo expressed optimism that he’ll be fine over the course of spring training, and certainly by Opening Day. But he didn’t offer any guarantees, either. The plantar fasciitis didn’t just pop up in October — it was something he had successfully treated way back in May — and he’ll need constant maintenance to keep his output closer to 100% in the sprinting department (as measured by the Mets’ wearable data-collecting devices).

Then again, taking it slow in spring training is nothing new for Nimmo, who seemingly solved his early-career injury problems by using a steady build-up to the Grapefruit League season, then playing sparingly. The strategy has worked, as Nimmo has appeared in no fewer than 151 games the past three seasons, and he’s turning 32 at the end of next month.

Nimmo is a fanatical devourer of analytics, so it wasn’t surprising to hear him chart his physical progress as he would plate performance. Asked about the level of pain during the NLCS, he described it as an eight or nine (out of 10), so that helps explain why he batted .187 (4-for-24) without an extra-base hit in the six-game loss to the Dodgers. The whole time Nimmo was trying to run on the edges of his foot in order to avoid the painful stabbing in his heel, but that hardly solves the problem. Or even help much.

But if the Mets are going to make good on their World Series hopes, they’re going to need a fully-functioning Nimmo, likely as the cleanup hitter in a stacked lineup a few of his teammates already have called the best in baseball (yes, that includes the Dodgers, too). The best order figures to have Francisco Lindor in the leadoff spot, followed by Juan Soto, Pete Alonso, Nimmo and Mark Vientos. That’s fine with Nimmo, but his primary concern at the moment is getting fully up to speed in the weeks ahead, and that means doing everything possible to keep the plantar fasciitis out of the equation.

“There’s definitely a chance that it can come back,” Nimmo said. “But our goal is to try and be working ahead of the schedule rather than be reactive.”

The current plan seems to be effective, and that’s all that Nimmo and the Mets can go on for the moment. There may require some adjustment along the way, however, such as giving Nimmo time at DH in order go get him off his feet on occasion. The Mets do have coverage in the outfield — Tyrone Taylor and Jose Siri figure to share centerfield, Starling Marte remains on the roster and Jesse Winker is back, too — so DH could be a contingency plan for Nimmo, also as a preventive measure.

“It’s a possibility,” Nimmo said. “But I also am confident in everything that we’ve done this offseason, that I really think we can kind of put this in the rear-view mirror if we just nip it in the bud now. Make sure we don’t rush it, but we get it back to full strength. There’s going to be things that come up — every year there are little things that happen here and there — and DHing is not out of the realm of possibility in some of those situations.”

Nimmo and the Mets have another six weeks to be in optimal condition for the games that count. Knowing him, and his usual spring training regimen, Nimmo will proceed with caution in climbing toward 100. Adding Soto and Alonso won’t be quite as beneficial if the Mets lose Nimmo for any significant period.

“Anytime you go out and do what we did this offseason, the expectations are there,” Nimmo said. “We’re trying to win a World Series. There’s no doubt about it. We’re going to start preparing for that right now.”

For Nimmo, that means one methodical step at a time.