Brandon Nimmo's disastrous slump comes at the worst possible time for the Rangers

You won't hear a single negative word about Brandon Nimmo from Skip Schumaker, his teammates, and the fanbase, as he has come in from Queens in the Marcus Semien deal and performed like a consummate professional. He had a tremendous home run robbery of Andrew Benintendi in the White Sox series. Still, there is an elephant in the room that everyone seems to be tiptoeing around as the Texas Rangers are in danger of falling out of the AL playoff chase.

Hopefully, Nimmo will break out after a 3-for-4 night with a jack in Saturday's 5-3 loss to the Brewers, but he's mired in a three-week-long slump, and his first extended dry spell of the season couldn't have come at a worse time for the Rangers. They are trying to make the playoffs with an utterly mediocre team and need all of their big-money players to step up and be the players they're being paid to be down the stretch.

Brandon Nimmo has been solid all year, but he is slumping at the worst possible time for the Rangers

Since August 11, Nimmo has gone 9-for-62 (.145) with one home run and just 4 RBIs. Over that span, his average has dipped from .278 to .262, and his OPS has dropped from .793 to .750. That is a precipitous drop for a guy who is now slotted in the cleanup spot almost every day.

It feels like when one of the big three of Nimmo, Seager, and Langford gets really hot, one or two of the others can't seem to find a hit. With the Rangers 2 games behind the Astros in the AL West, and now a full 2 games behind the Guardians for the final wild-card spot, this trend is less than optimal, to say the least.

Nimmo has had mini-slumps throughout the year, but he was hitting the ball hard into some serious bad luck. That made it easier to absorb because you knew eventually the plus exit velocity would win out. This slump is different because, outside of his one Ruthian home run on Saturday, he isn't hitting line drives right at defenders, and his exit velo is way down. On top of that, the Rangers are running out of games and should approach each contest as a playoff game.

The right fielder has just three extra-base hits during his recent falloff, and he looks late on low-to-mid-90s fastballs. He is popping out to left field regularly and has struck out 14 times.

Moreover, in his last three seasons with the Mets, Nimmo has rung up 24, 23, and 25 jacks. The homer on Saturday was just his 14th. This season, he is projected to finish with 16. And the RBIs are down from an average of 83 to just 51 and counting, with 26 games left. He is having a down year statistically, but no one wants to mention it because he's such an affable clubhouse presence.

Nimmo needs to get things turned around if the Rangers are going to stay in contention for a playoff berth, and his 3-for-4 game is a good sign he's on the upswing. It feels like he slides under the radar and quietly goes about his business, but he is a huge part of this lineup, and the Rangers need to get all the bats going against the NL-best Milwaukee Brewers this weekend and beyond.

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