2021 Season | Series #39 | Rangers @ Indians | Aug. 24-26

Bradley Zimmer has yet to finish a season healthy and been able to enter an offseason to work on his game healthy since breaking into the MLB.

He is finally healthy for a significant length of consecutive time, getting more comfortable with his new stance, production is trending up, and is playing above average defense at all 3 OF spots.

Talent has never been a question with him, health and continuity of health has held him back more than any of the other LH hitting top prospects we have seen recently (Chisenhall, Naquin). He is 100% someone you roster as, at a minimum, your 4th OFer and to me is someone you roster in that role on the hope he catches lightning in a bottle when his body lets his talent shine for a long enough stretch, cause it is there.

My personal opinion on Zimmer has changed dramatically. Toward the end of last season he was a disaster. Not only was he an offensive black hole, but more concerning, he was playing tentatively in CF. Probably was sort of injury shy. But one thing you don't need is a CF who plays CF while having second thoughts on extending himself.
As bimbo mentioned, for the first time he is healthy, and getting an extended chance to play. With him in RF and Straw in CF, well, good luck to any fly balls trying to drop in.
In fact, if he stays healthy, I'm not sure where to put Zimmer's ceiling at. I don't think he's an All-Star. But his talent puts him above average.

tabejw23 said:

Exactly what you want as a 4th outfielder, a late inning defensive replacement, a pinch runner, etc. As an everyday starting RF though? I'd say no.

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4th OF OR platoon guy , his big issue is he still can't hit lefties

I’ve always been a fan of Zimmer.
Now that he seems to be gaining other fans, I’d still say he’s 50-50 to be brought back next year.
It’s a shame for the front office not to have money.

ZinAZ said:

4th OF OR platoon guy , his big issue is he still can't hit lefties

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Yep. .259 against righties, .197 against lefties. OBP .377/.254. OPS .766/.516.

biggie4 said:

I’ve always been a fan of Zimmer.
Now that he seems to be gaining other fans, I’d still say he’s 50-50 to be brought back next year.
It’s a shame for the front office not to have money.

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This is not a case of the FO having a lack of money going into this offseason.
Its a matter of what other players the team has under its control or that it is needing to protect with the R5

The issue for Zimmer might be his lack of roster options after this season.

If he and Daniel Johnson both perform the same down the stretch, Daniel might be kept since Johnson still has remaining roster options.

Wham with the Right Hand said:

Chang keeps going to right field with success. Two home runs in the last two nights plus a single. He's about to blow past the Mendoza line and into uncharted territory.

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Great to see Chang finally break through the Mendoza line lol.

He may be playing himself on to the roster next season if he continues to show improvement. A versatile player with pop against lefthanders

Bradley Zimmer could win a GG as a right fielder. If he can be an average-ish bat + his speed and aforementioned defense, he should definitely be the 4th or a platoon mate/semi-reg. If he can take a step forward and turn into a productive/consistent "hitter".... Even better.

Outfield crunch is coming and some hard decisions will need to be made.

Do we roster Oscar Gonzalez?
Do we try to extend Zimmer now or go the arby route?
What do we do with Harold Ramirez?
What about Mercado?
What about Naylor? Johnson?
Oh and then there is
Nolan Jones, Richie Palacios, Steven Kwan, Will Benson and of course George Valera all at AA and above..

Oh and we should definitely not be ruling out another OFer via trade/FA.

The players we mostly debate are players that dont make a real difference in the end. The one exception is Zimmer.

But in all their cases we jump on their small sample sizes of success, ignoring long term trend lines and unsustainable peripherals.

Notice how many sentences we use that begin with the word 'if'.

IF Chang does this...IF Johnson does that...IF Miller does whatever. We grasp at straws.

In most of those cases, the dependent IFs are things they have never done over extended periods.

Our sentences should read 'If he does something he has never done before.'

I agree somewhat with Bimbo on Zimmer. But there are a lot of IFs. Bimbo points out that Zimmer is finally healthy. So let's begin with 'IF Zimmer stays healthy...IF he can maintain an other wordly BABIP...IF he can stop striking out 33% of the time...IF he can keep sticking his arm in front of pitches...IF he can beat out grounders at almost twice the rate of Kenny Lofton.' Thats a lot of freaking IFs.

Nevertheless, I think Zimmer will be kept, but only as the proposed 4th OF. It would be foolhardy for the FO to go into the offseason, expecting Zimmer to be a cornerstone of next year's lineup. One thing the FO is not is foolhardy. The outfield will be addressed in the offseason. IF Zimmer passes all the IFs, its pure gravy.

One thing about Zimmer...he is not a .110 ISO hitter...or even his career .121. Somewhere in there is a real power threat....maybe 30 HR power. And power usually comes last.

As for the rest of the outfielders, the roster numbers work against them. So, the job description may be very narrowly defined. RH bat to balance Zimmer, that can be a defensive replacement at all three OF spots and can run the bases well.

That only fits Mercado.

It also depends on how many position prospects get added...and how many we want to risk losing.

20 is the normal number.

Two catchers
Franmil
Bradley and Naylor
Jose
Amed
Straw
Gimenez
Arias
Jones
Miller
Clement

Who do you want to protect?

Freeman
Rocchio
Valera
Lavastida
Palacios

If we keep two of the OFs..say Zimmer and Mercado...that puts us at 20....leaving...

Tena
Kwan
Benson
Noel
Gonzales
Bracho

You can massage it a little, maybe letting Clement go, but there is no way around the fact that we are gonna be giving away some talent with nothing in return, unless the FO does something major before rosters have to be set in November.

And we still haven't talked about Chang, Johnson, and Harold. No matter how good they look in the next month, does anybody see a legitimate way any of them survive the purge?

CATS44 said:

It also depends on how many position prospects get added...and how many we want to risk losing.

20 is the normal number.

Two catchers
Franmil
Bradley and Naylor
Jose
Amed
Straw
Gimenez
Arias
Jones
Miller
Clement

Who do you want to protect?

Freeman
Rocchio
Valera
Lavastida
Palacios

If we keep two of the OFs..say Zimmer and Mercado...that puts us at 20....leaving...

Tena
Kwan
Benson
Noel
Gonzales
Bracho

You can massage it a little, maybe letting Clement go, but there is no way around the fact that we are gonna be giving away some talent with nothing in return, unless the FO does something major before rosters have to be set in November.

And we still haven't talked about Chang, Johnson, and Harold. No matter how good they look in the next month, does anybody see a legitimate way any of them survive the purge?

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Harold seems like a definite goner to me. Not rostering Oscar G. would almost guarantee he is gone as he can walk away as a MILB FA. Mercado is on the bubble, could see a cash consideration trade type thing with him.

Benson - Tough call on this one. His roster status may depend on how he plays out in AAA.
Noel - won't get rostered - might get picked but I doubt it
Bracho - won't get rostered or picked

I honestly don't see how we can keep all three of Mercado, Zimmer and Straw. They aren't the same player, but they overlap badly and none are rounded enough to consider keeping all three. Straw is the CF. That means that either Zimmer or Mercado goes IMO. Zimmer has put a better case forward to this point......But let's wait another 6 weeks to see how it ends up. And speaking of considering the OF makeup next year, I don't see how you can keep Harold AND Naylor.....again because neither at this point in time brings enough offense to make them viable on a winning team. And the team isn't dumping Naylor, so unless Harold is willing to be pocketed in Columbus, I think he's gone.

We should have a rotation that can compete strongly in Bieber, Civale, Plesac, Quan and TMac/Morgan/ et al. We have some solid talent in the Pen and that should be playoff worthy.

So it comes down to the bats. And we don't have enough to compete in the playoffs. Straw works as a leadoff, Jose of course in the 3 hole and Fran in the 4.......we know our catcher will be a black hole, whoever that is, so we need better bats at 3 of RF/LF/1B/SS/2B at least. At least.....to be competitive offensively.

I'm thinking that going into '23 the outfield candidates will be Straw, Daniel Johnson, Naylor, Nolan Jones, Oscar Gonzalez (now at .307/.833 at Columbus at age 23), and Valera, who was just promoted to AA. That's six candidates, including two of our top five prospects.

I don't think Harold, Zimmer, or Mercado will be around after next season, and possibly not next year. Maybe not Josh Naylor, either, depending on whether he can fully recover and put up an OPS over .700 in 2022. And Daniel Johnson needs to have a strong 2022.

Martyinnewyork said:

Is getting hits in 21 of 33 games all that impressive? He‘s something like 30-117 in that stretch, which is a .256 average. If that’s his “hot streak” I’m not that impressed. He’s a solid 4th outfielder.

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It’s one of those stats that is completely meaningless without context. AKA, what I like to call the Matt Underwood special because he’s good for at least one of those stats per broadcast.