How Rangers Star Brandon Nimmo Learned How to Hit Left-Handed Pitching

The Texas Rangers acquired Brandon Nimmo for his ability to hit left-handed pitching. Here’s how the left-handed hitting outfielder got better at it.

Texas Rangers right fielder Brandon Nimmo. | Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images

One of the reasons that the Texas Rangers wanted Brandon Nimmo this offseason was his ability to hit left-handed pitching.

It’s not easy for a left-handed hitter to be effective against left-handed pitching. Evan Carter is having the same issue. But Nimmo has reached a point in his career where he can hit both right-handers and left-handers effectively, keeping him in the line-up every day.

Entering Tuesday’s game with the Athletics his numbers against were nearly identical. Against left-handers he was batting .333 and against right-handers he was batting .340. That’s not unusual. Last year he batted .261 against left-handers and .263 against right-handers. But that wasn’t always the case. In 2020, he batted .196 against lefties and .311 against righties.

So, what changed? A conversation and a training method he learned from that conversation, as he told Rangers Sports Network.

How Brandon Nimmo Hits Left-Handers So Well Now

How did Brandon Nimmo become so good at hitting lefties as a leftie? Hear from him ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/z0Y2YgBqZl

— Rangers Sports Network (@RangersSNtv) April 15, 2026

As Nimmo told RSN’s Jared Sandler, it started with a conversation. The Wyoming native grew up a Rockies fan and when was growing up Todd Helton, now a Baseball Hall of Famer, was the team’s top left-handed hitter. When he reached the Majors, he was asked what player he’d like to talk to about hitting and he mentioned Helton. Reporters helped him get in touch with Helton.

While talking with him, Nimmo asked how Helton got to hit left-handed pitching well. He gave Nimmo a few tips. But one particular tip stuck with him.

“One of the tips he had was that he had their weightlifting coach that would throw him left-handed batting practice and he said he would have him pitch to try and get him out,” Nimmo said.

Batting practice is usually a rote exercise. Hitters are working to connect with pitches that are generally the same so they can prepare for a game. Helton asked his left-handed BP pitcher to work hard to get him out, no matter what.

In 2021, Nimmo carried that tip with him to Mets spring training. In a desire to improve against left-handed pitching, he partnered with Rafael Hernandez, then a minor league coach and now an assistant hitting coach, to do the same thing.  Hernandez did everything possible to get Nimmo out. He called it “Super BP.”

“You get your BP thrower closer [to the hitter] and try to mimic the reaction time of the game,” Nimmo said. “Then [Hernandez] just pitched to try to get me out rather than throwing me a fastball 50 miles per hour and you know where it’s going to end up.

“The object was really to try and embarrass me in the batter’s box,” he said.

One can’t argue with the results. With great splits and left-handers and right-handers Nimmo is nearly impossible to bench — and difficult to get out.