Bradley Zimmer And His Future In Cleveland

Bradley Zimmer has about a month and a half to make a big impact on a Tribe roster filled with young unproven players. Can Zimmer do enough to be in the mix in some regard for playing time, maybe a starting job, in 2022?

Prodigious.

That is how legendary Indians announcer Tom Hamilton described the 471-foot blast to deep center field by Indians outfielder Bradley Zimmer. This in the 7th inning of The Battle of Ohio against the Cincinnati Reds at Progressive Field. That solo home run made the score 9-2, and the Indians ended up winning said game by a final score of 9-3.

On the year, Zimmer is hitting .248 with four home runs, 20 runs batted in, a .357 on-base percentage and .363 slugging percentage.

Right now, the center fielder is making $576,700 here in 2021. In ’22, ’23 and ’24 Zimmer would go through arbitration before finally becoming an unrestricted free agent as a 32-year-old in 2025.

While Zimmer’s numbers are not necessarily mind-blowing, he is a player that is able to contribute to the Indians on both offense and defense. A fantastic center fielder, Zimmer helps the club by making stellar plays with the glove. The offense can certainly use some improvement, however, swings like that 7th inning blast truly show what Zimmer is capable of at the plate with some work in the future.

Interestingly enough, Zimmer actually played the most games at the major league level in his rookie season back in 2017. That was 101 games total for the year. This season, Zimmer has played in exactly half of the 110 total games so far at 55.

Certainly, the Indians will have some decisions to make in regards to Zimmer and future contract moves. If the center field keeps smoking home runs over the center field wall, it’ll make it easy to extend Bradley Zimmer for many more years in Cleveland.