NL MVP candidate hypes up Blue Jays top prospect Arjun Nimmala

Dropping their latest series to the Mets was a gut punch for the Blue Jays, especially seeing as how the Jays had both of their losses in the bag at one point, but that dang bullpen blew the lead each time.

Bowden Francis nearly made history again, but the Blue Jays were also owners of a front-row seat to see one of the game's best superstars in action. Francisco Lindor, the Mets' shortstop, is putting together an MVP-worthy season and is expected to make a serious run for the NL MVP Award. That Shohei Ohtani guy is currently leading the sweepstakes for that, though.

Lindor did his thing against the Blue Jays, just like he does against, well ... every team. He went 1-for-4 on Tuesday with a walk, a strikeout and a run scored, but Wednesday he was the one that broke up Francis's no-hitter and shutout with a leadoff home run in the ninth inning.

Following Wednesday's contest, Lindor met with the media and one of the topics that came up was Blue Jays prospect Arjun Nimmala, who Lindor is very familiar with. The two players are represented by the same agency and they've known each other since 2022 when they both attended a practice session in Florida.

Lindor had nothing but great things to say about Nimmala. "He has an ability to adapt to new things very, very quickly. You teach him something and he goes out there and puts it to practice right away. He gets it and I love that about him."

"His arm is fantastic," continued Lindor. "He's got great range, super-fast, he can hit for power, he can hit for average, he's got a great eye. Honestly, if he can improve everything at the same rate, he's going to be one of the best players in their organization. I see him as becoming one of the faces of the franchise, for sure."

That's some great praise to receive from one of the best players in all of baseball. Lindor knows him well, and a lot of things he touched on are why the Blue Jays love Nimmala so much themselves.

While Lindor is in his 10th big league season and has 30 home runs with a 135 wRC+, Nimmala is tearing it up down in Single-A with the Dunedin Blue Jays. He hit 16 home runs in just 82 games at that level, posting a 121 wRC+ along the way. His power output has come along nicely and he's shot up prospect rankings around the industry. He ranked third in Jays Journal's midseason rankings and MLB Pipeline has him ranked fifth.

The respect between Lindor and Nimmala goes both ways. As a matter of fact, the former is the latter's favorite player. Nimmala has not hid the fact that he tries to emulate the four-time All-Star.

“You could see how calm and collected he is in anything that he does,” Nimmala said, as relayed by David Singh of Sportsnet. “He’s so good in his ability to adjust and adapt. If he does have a bad rep, you see that fix in the next one.

“I did learn a lot from that because I realized that I can’t just fail and fail and not change something. I have to be able to switch something up and change something to help me be better.”