Breakout season from Brandon Nimmo could land him on next year's top 100 list

The Texas Rangers will have a new member in the outfield in 2026 after acquiring left-handed power bat Brandon Nimmo from the New York Mets and that move has a chance to be one of the best moves for both Texas and Nimmo.

Nimmo, 32, is coming off a bounce back season in 2025 and is looking to keep that momentum rolling into his first season as a Ranger. His chances are big to do so, as he will likely be put into the leadoff spot and be charged with being that fresh jolt of offensive energy.

All in all, this has the potential to be a big year for Nimmo and if perfected could lend him to being one of the best players in the league and featured on MLB Network's Top 100 Right Now list this time next year.

Leadoff Nimmo will be huge for Rangers

Throughout his 10-year big league career, Nimmo has recorded 3,723 at-bats with 2,647 of those at-bats coming from the leadoff position in the lineup. It is far and away the most ABs he's had from any part in the lineup and he's productive in that role.

As leadoff, Nimmo has a slash line of .268/.372/.448 with 80 home runs, 261 RBIs, 116 doubles, 25 triples, 319 walks and an .820 OPS. He has also hit 14 career homers to lead off a game with good-to-great numbers at getting on base (.360) and slugging percentage (.425) as the first batter.

Numbers like that are desperately needed at the top of the Rangers' lineup over the last two seasons. For most part in 2024 and 2025, that role was occupied by Marcus Semien,who was traded for Nimmo, who saw his numbers overall drastically decline from his 2023 season.

Going beyond Semien, Texas was bad in the top spot of the lineup, hitting just .224 with 14 home runs and 49 RBIs. Including only six homers and an average .320 on-base percentage to start off a game.

Appearance in 2027 Top 100 could be on horizon for Nimmo

First off, we would have to get through the 2026 season successfully and hope we even have a 2027 year with the expiration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expected to lockdown the sport on Dec. 1.

Somehow if Major League Baseball is in action by the late-January time and pitchers and catchers are incing closer to report date, the top 100 lists from MLB Network will start to make their way around the media.

Nimmo, if he finds a way to duplicate his 2025 success and maybe even build upon it, he could find himself included among the top 100 players in baseball heading into his age 34 season.

He even would have a chance to land in the top 10 position rankings but that is up in the air right now as Texas still is figuring out where he will play. While he's spent most of his career as a left fielder, Texas has Gold Glove finalist Wyatt Langford there and Nimmo doesn't have the arm for right field.