New Met Marcus Semien feels 'for the fans' after losing Brandon Nimmo but is ready for NY opportunity

Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News on Nov 25, 2025

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — Marcus Semien understands who he is replacing. He knows what outfielder Brandon Nimmo meant to Mets fans and to the clubhouse he has helped lead over the better part of the last decade. The newest Mets infielder understands this because he held a similar status with his old team as a captain.

“I feel for the Mets fans,” Semien said Tuesday on a Zoom call with New York media members. “When you lose a player who has been present and who has been such a fixture in that lineup and in the community, has a great personality and is such a nice guy, I feel for the fans.”

Semien is hoping Mets fans will like what he brings to Flushing.

“I want to play until they tell me to go home,” he said. “At this point in my career, it feels extremely good to have a team that believes in me, sees what I do well and wants to help me offensively. I think that I still have a lot to offer.”

Semien’s career has unfolded much differently than Nimmo’s. The Mets will be the fifth team he’s played for and the first in the National League. Nimmo, on the other hand, has never known another team. The Mets drafted the outfielder out of his Wyoming high school in 2011. A first-round pick, he was the first draft pick of a new era, with former general manager Sandy Alderson leading the baseball operations efforts.

During his tenure in Queens, Nimmo saw several different Mets eras. He believed the latest one would be successful, which is why he signed an eight-year contract in 2022. It might not have been that long ago, but it feels like eons ago, considering the Mets have already changed over their front office leadership and coaching staff in that time.

This is where Semien can empathize with Nimmo. He signed a seven-year deal with the Rangers around the same time Nimmo signed up for eight more years in a Mets uniform. Long-term free agent contracts typically afford players and their families security and stability. In an instant, all of that can feel as though it’s been upended when they’ve been traded, and it can be especially shocking for two franchise players like Semien and Nimmo.

“It was surprising, just understanding that, hey, I signed here on a long-term deal four years ago,” Semien said. “But I’m very conscious of what’s going on in the business side of baseball, just kind of paying attention to everything, so in the back of my mind, I knew something could always happen.”

That doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to digest the change.

Nimmo and his wife, Chelsea, recently completed a remodel of a house in Port St. Lucie. They expected to raise their 1-year-old daughter Tatum in that house, and were excited about being able to host team parties.

Semien and his wife, Tarah, made Texas their offseason home. They put down roots there and put their kids in school there. The parents of five, their youngest two were born in the Dallas area. Their daughter Amelie had been born during the Rangers’ 2023 World Series run, and their fifth child was born only three weeks ago. After being approached about the trade, Semien called former Mets and Rangers starting pitcher Max Scherzer to ask for advice on how to handle family living in New York.

But for Semien, the logistical implications of the trade haven’t diminished his excitement to play in New York.

“When people ask me, ‘What’s your favorite road city? I say New York,” Semien said. “I love being in the city. I grew up on the West Coast in a similar environment, the San Francisco Bay Area. Maybe not as large as New York, but in terms of culture, it’s definitely a place that I really enjoy being, and I get to do what I love in that city in front of fans that love the game.

“There’s a strong history of the Mets organization. They’ve had great players who came through there and done some good things, and I just want to be one of those players.”

Semien thinks he can be one of those players. The intensity and scrutiny in New York is unlike anywhere else, and certainly not a characteristic shared by fans on the laid-back West Coast. But Semien seems to be energized by the challenge.

“In terms of baseball itself, I couldn’t be more excited to play in a large market and in front of a fanbase that brings the energy every single night,” he said. “That brings the best out of me.”

Semien and Nimmo have played long enough that they know they don’t have to try to replicate what each of them did in their respective clubhouses. Things will be different, but different isn’t necessarily bad.

Mets fans might be sad right now, and the rest of the team is certainly feeling that change is coming. But Semien, it’s a change he’s eager to embrace. He hopes the feeling is mutual with the Mets.

“I think everybody is aligned with the goal to go out there and give it their all, and put forth their best effort to win baseball games,” he said. “It’s a culture that I want to be a part of.”