How Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo are leading Mets' resurgence

A recent story detailed how shortstop Francisco Lindor and outfielder Brandon Nimmo emerged as needed behind-the-scenes leaders for the New York Mets this season.

As Zach Braziller and Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post mentioned, Lindor and Nimmo have also offered numerous on-the-field contributions since first-year manager Carlos Mendoza moved Lindor to the leadoff spot in the middle of May.

"Since May 21, a span of 43 games, Lindor has nine home runs, 26 RBI, 27 extra-base hits, 10 stolen bases and 33 runs scored," Braziller wrote. "He’s batting .316 in that time with a .912 OPS."

Lindor and Nimmo struggled at the plate before the Mets fell to 22-33 on the season back on May 29, the same night Lindor called a players-only meeting. New York most recently improved to

45-45 on the season via Tuesday's 7-5 win over the Washington Nationals, and the Mets began Wednesday sitting one-and-a-half games back in the battle for the National League's final wild-card playoff berth.

"He was hitting .209 as recently as May 30," Vaccaro said about Nimmo. "In the 40 days since he’s at .320/.483/502. Tuesday’s was his eighth homer in 32 games, with 26 RBI."

Nimmo recently challenged Mets owner Steve Cohen and president of baseball operations David Stearns to make "additions" ahead of the July 30 MLB trade deadline. Stearns seemingly responded to that call by acquiring right-handed reliever Phil Maton from the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday.

“They are great players,” Mendoza said about Nimmo and Lindor following Tuesday's victory, per Phillip Martinez of SNY. "They’ve been doing it for a long time. The way they are controlling the strike zone, the way they are impacting the baseball and to all fields. ... that tells you they are seeing the ball well."

Lindor, Nimmo and others inside the Mets clubhouse hope the Maton move is a preview of things to come. The Amazins will try to impress Stearns and Cohen across two more games versus the 42-50 Nationals and during a three-game home series against the Colorado Rockies (32-60) before the All-Star break gets underway on Sunday evening.