Nearly four decades before Brandon Nimmo’s arrival, another outfielder drafted in the first round by the Mets figured he would spend his entire career with the organization.
Brooklyn kid Lee Mazzilli advanced through the minor league system and debuted for the Mets in 1976. Five years later, the team traded him to the Rangers, beginning a nomadic voyage that later took Mazzilli to the Yankees, Pirates, back to the Mets and finally to the Blue Jays.
On Thursday, the Mets celebrated Nimmo’s new eight-year contract for $162 million that should allow him to finish his career with the organization that selected him in the first round of the 2011 draft. If that comes to fruition, the 29-year-old Nimmo would join a short list — consisting of David Wright, Ed Kranepool and Ron Hodges — of those who played at least a decade and spent their entire career with the Mets.
“I think every player that signs a contract when they turn professional always feels they’re going to finish their career with that organization,” Mazzilli said by phone this week. “That’s the mindset: You’re going to be this for life. But we know the business of the game of baseball that it’s probably highly unlikely that it happens.”
