Brandon Nimmo is set to become an unrestricted free agent if the Mets don't extend him during their exclusive five-day negotiating window that begins after the World Series ends.

And now that Nimmo is represented by Scott Boras, the expectation is that he will hit the open market.

With that in mind, GM Billy Eppler was asked Tuesday during an appearance on The Show podcast with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman whether the Mets think they can slide Starling Marte to center field in the event Nimmo doesn't return.

"Yeah, we believe he can," Eppler said. "Part of the rationale for signing Marte wasn't so much that he was a center fielder. This outfield is not an easy one to play, and our ballpark suppresses home runs. We all realize and acknowledge that. So depending on the year, it could be the 26th, 27th, 28th most difficult park to hit a home run in. That leaves a lot of opportunities for balls to land in the outfield and fall short of the wall. Having above average defense, kind of at all three positions, it was important to me and important to Buck (Showalter).

"Can Starling still play center field? Yeah, we believe he can. That opens up some optionality for how we ultimately would fill out that outfield. But that being said, it's not a closed case by any stretch of the imagination. 

"Brandon knows how we feel. We know how he feels, too. Perhaps something can get accomplished there, but we do have the ability to slide Marte over into center for a number of games, or over 50 percent of the games. He's got the ability to do that. He's shown it in the past. He was moving well this season, earlier on kind of before that quad issue or groin issue that he went through. All in all, we are comfortable with him in center field."

After Marte inked a four-year deal with the Mets last offseason, the expectation from most was that Marte would stick in center (he had never played right field professionally before last season), with Nimmo sliding to a corner outfield spot.

But with Marte's center field defense having regressed since 2019, the Mets kept Nimmo in center (where he was in the 91st percentile in 2022 in Outs Above Average) and had Marte play right.

While Eppler expressed optimism that Marte could slide back to center in 2023 if needed, it's hard to see him being above average there (or even just average) after being a negative defender at the position in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Additionally, the Mets losing Nimmo would mean having to add another starting outfielder -- likely via free agency -- from a group of pending free agents that (aside from Aaron Judge) leaves a lot to be desired.

So, the Mets should do their best to retain Nimmo.