Center fielder Bradley Zimmer doesn’t want to play winter ball, and the Indians do not seem happy about that decision.
It has been a tough couple years for the player who was once the Indians' top prospect chosen with the 21st pick in the first round of the 2014 draft. He hit .285 in the first half of 2017, but only .196 in the second half of his rookie season.
Zimmer started the 2018 season with the Indians. He was sent to Columbus the first week in June after hitting just .226 with 44 strikeouts in 104 at-bats. He injured his shoulder and missed the rest of 2018 and all but nine games in 2019 after rosters were expanded on Sept. 1.
“We talked to him the other day and he was adamant that he needs to go home and have a normal off-season of work, not to get away from work, but to not play baseball,” Francona said. “We expressed to him that he’s missed basically a year and a half of at-bats and that at some point we may be asking him to go get more. We just wanted to be on the same page.
“Does it mean he can’t make the team? No. But it could happen that way (Zimmer starting 2020 in Columbus) and we just wanted to be up front with him about that.”