Just a Wyoming kid at heart, Nimmo went from hitting in a barn to the bigs

It was a rite of passage in Brandon Nimmo’s family growing up in Cheyenne, Wyoming, that when you turn seven years old, you get on the back of a calf and try to ride it for eight seconds. The first time Nimmo attempted that, the calf quickly bucked him off and ran around before stepping on his ankle.

“My parents have a saying: ‘It's not if you get hurt in rodeo, it’s when,’” Nimmo said.

So the goal of being a bull rider at the rodeo was quickly dashed, but it allowed Nimmo to start working toward making his other dream come true: Becoming a Major Leaguer.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Wyoming, the least populous state in America, has produced the smallest number of big leaguers of any other than Alaska. There have only been 17 Major League players born there, but Nimmo is proudly carrying the torch for the Cowboy State, and he makes sure you know it.

Asked to list the state bird (the western meadowlark, of course) and flower (the Wyoming Indian paintbrush) Nimmo immediately answered correctly before adding the state tree (plains cottonwood) unprompted.

Now an 11-year big leaguer and the only active player to be born in Wyoming, Nimmo has accumulated the most Wins Above Replacement of anyone in that group.

“It's not like Texas,” said Nimmo, who was traded from the Mets to the Rangers after the 2025 season. “There's so many players, so many great players that come out of Texas. Wyoming was a little bit of an unconventional route.

“Where I grew up, it's always home for me. When I go back there and I go back to the big skies, I'm very grateful for having grown up there. There's a lot that growing up in Wyoming taught me that I use in daily decisions today. But growing up there and playing baseball was unconventional.”

And in all honesty, the odds were stacked against him to get to this point.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Wyoming’s population is somewhere around 590,000, and it has the second-lowest population density despite being the tenth-largest state by area. The state doesn’t even sanction high school baseball, one of just two (including South Dakota) to not do so, largely because the unpredictable spring weather of the Mountain West region makes it difficult. The University of Wyoming doesn’t have a baseball team, having discontinued the program in 1996.

The state is more likely to produce rodeo stars than MLB All-Stars.

That is, until Nimmo came around.

In 2011, the Rangers outfielder became the first player out of Wyoming to ever be drafted in the first round when the Mets selected him at No. 13 overall. So how did Nimmo end up here, a seasoned MLB veteran with enough respect across the league to fill up the entire state of Wyoming, vast as it is?

“My dad, he always told me, if you're good enough, they'll find you,” Nimmo said. “That helped me to be motivated to try and do whatever it took and just look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘Am I getting the most out of myself?’ Rather than trying to compare myself to other players. I always just felt like there's someone out there that's better, so I need to keep getting better.

“There's someone out there whose livelihood depends on this. That was really important for me in my mindset coming into pro ball, and just trying to look at myself and ask myself if I am getting the most out of myself.”

The batting barn

Nimmo’s story truly starts in a barn on a six-acre plot of land in the state capital of Cheyenne, right on the edge of town.

The 60x40 barn had a bit of everything, except what barns are typically used for. Instead of horses and cattle, it contained a TV and video game system for Guitar Hero, a ping pong table and a basketball hoop. It was insulated to protect from the cold and eventually even had a jet engine heater.

But more importantly, it contained batting cages built by his father, Ron, who is now a retired CPA. Just like the unpredictability of the weather prevented sanctioned high school baseball in Wyoming, it also made any sort of outdoor activities difficult for months out of the year. But not for the Nimmos.

“My dad made a self feeder on the machine, and it could do 12 balls at a time,” Nimmo explained. “I would just go load up 12 balls, click that feeder on, run to home plate and hit 12 and then load it back up and do it again. I would go out there when I wanted to. I didn't necessarily have to play year round, like I could still work on things.”

Nimmo would use it for extra reps in the spring season or in the wintertime after football or basketball practice. If he didn’t have homework, you could find him working on his mechanics. Sometimes there would even be full-team practices at the barn after setting up nets on a cable. That allowed for four or five stations of tee work.

It was in that barn out in suburban Wyoming that a Major Leaguer was born.

“I obviously wouldn't be here without my parents and the sacrifices that they made,” Nimmo said. “They really got creative with things and really made it happen for us. It’s something that I didn't fully appreciate until I got out on my own. They made so many sacrifices for us. Got so creative, that was a financial sacrifice that probably could have gone to so many other things, other than us getting better at baseball. They put it into us. And I'm so, so thankful to them for that.”

Though he played other sports as well, baseball was always supreme for the Nimmo family. Brandon’s brother, Bryce, played college baseball for the Nebraska Cornhuskers alongside Major Leaguers like Alex Gordon and Joba Chamberlain. Their father instilled in them a desire to play the game hard and fast, as evidenced by Brandon’s trademark sprint to first base.

Even so, there wasn’t an easy path to baseball success in Wyoming. Nimmo knows how unconventional it is. When he was in high school, there was not a single active big league hitter to have come out of the state.

“It’s weird to people that I didn't have high school baseball, but for me, it really wasn't that big of a deal,” Nimmo said. “It became kind of a bigger headline than what I felt like it actually was. I still played baseball. It wasn't like they saw me out there throwing an ice fishing pole and they were like, ‘Oh, he's got good hands, maybe he'll be a good baseball player.’ We still played 80 games a year.”

Instead of playing regular high school baseball like he might have had he grown up in any of 48 other states, Nimmo played American Legion, which is an amateur organization for players between the ages of 13 and 19. The tournament setup includes 64 teams playing at eight regional sites, with eight teams going on to the American Legion World Series.

Nimmo’s team, the Cheyenne American Legion Post Six, competed against teams in Wyoming like Casper, Gillette, Sheridan and Jackson, as well as teams in South Dakota.

“We tried to keep things as competitive as possible, try to bide our time until everybody was done with their high school seasons,” Nimmo recalled. “Then we would go play in those summer league schedules like normal. We really had a lot of fun with it. I thought there was something special about it.”

For Nimmo, playing Post 6 was even more influential to his life, both on and off the field, than high school ball might have been. With American Legion ball, it was the same group from start to finish, all year. They weren’t going off to different travel ball teams over the summer. They were always together.

“It really helped our team chemistry,” Nimmo said. “I really think it helped us to have a lot of success. I was very fortunate to be on some very successful teams with other guys that went to play in college, who tried to make themselves better, and have a future in baseball for themselves as well. I really think that it taught us a lot about camaraderie and chemistry and how far that can take you.”

Nimmo names Post 6 architect Tagg Lain as one of the most influential people in his baseball life.

Lain helped coach Cheyenne Post 6 to 15 state championships and three Northwest Regional runner-up finishes. He’s been integral to the sport's success in Wyoming longer than Nimmo’s even been alive.

“He didn't want us to think that just because we were from Wyoming, we had a lower standard,” Nimmo said. “He instilled in us that it just meant that we had a higher standard and we had more to prove when we got on the field, and to carry a chip on our shoulder.”

That chip led to Nimmo being selected as a teenager at No. 13 overall in the 2011 MLB Draft by the Mets. In American Legion play the previous year, he had a .448 average with 15 home runs and 34 stolen bases in 70 games. He competed a bit in the showcase circuit, and even won MVP at the Under Armour All-American Game at Wrigley Field in 2010.

The following 15 years have been as far from the Wyoming life as Nimmo could’ve ever expected.

Nimmo joked that he was only used to Texas Roadhouse and Olive Garden before getting into the New York food scene. The culture shock was undeniable. He’s seen Broadway musicals, taken the subway and started eating sushi, all while trying his best to be a real part of the community in New York during his decade with the Mets.

He broadened his horizons with new experiences each and every day of his professional career. It took him time to adjust, he admits. But it was all worth it for the variety of new experiences, and he knows that baseball has afforded him opportunities that so many kids from Wyoming will never get.

“Looking back, if you would have told, you know, 17-, 18-year-old me, that this journey was going to happen the way it did, I would have just jumped up and down for joy,” Nimmo said with a laugh. “I’m forever grateful to the New York Mets for drafting me, taking the chance on the kid from Wyoming. It was a completely different atmosphere, it was such an interesting first experience, just the traffic, taking the subway, not that much greenery, and it was just such a far cry from where I grew up."

Now he’s played all over the United States. He’s played in the Dominican Summer League and in the World Baseball Classic. He’s played at Wembley Stadium in London. He’s experienced new cultures all over the world.

Yeah, a long way from Cheyenne, Wyoming.

“I just feel so fortunate for that, but I've had so many experiences that have shown me a new way of life, new culture, and, you know, new languages. And it's just been such a fun journey that has really helped me to mature and be a better person.

“The Wyoming kid inside of me is extremely happy and grateful to have enjoyed this ride,” Nimmo said.