With Hernandez out, opportunity knocks for Blue Jays' Bradley Zimmer

Hazel Mae and Arden Zwelling discuss how the Jays will manage their outfield with Teoscar Hernandez being placed on the IL with an oblique strain and break down the degree of difficulty on the 3 home runs hit by Vladimir Guerrero Jr last night.

NEW YORK — Bradley Zimmer’s done a lot of things in big-league outfields.

He’s run into walls to save games:

He’s barehanded a ball off the centre field wall to hold a guy to a double:

He’s laid out to rob extra bases…

…more times…

…than he can remember:

But Wednesday night, taking over for the injured Teoscar Hernandez mid-way through The Vladimir Guerero Jr. Game — or, at least, the latest one — Zimmer encountered something new.

It was the bottom of the seventh inning and the pull-happy Anthony Rizzo was coming up. From the Toronto Blue Jays dugout, first base and outfield coach Mark Budzinski was looking straight at Zimmer and holding up four fingers. The centre fielder was confused.

“I was thinking, like, ‘Do they want me to take four steps over?’ And then I’m looking around and I realized, ‘Oh, we’ve got four guys out here right now,” Zimmer says. “We definitely do a very high volume of shifting here. And that was the first time I’d ever played in a four-man outfield. It takes some getting used to, for sure. There isn’t usually an infielder up the right-field line.”

Nine seasons into a winding, frustrating, stop-and-start professional career, it’s always nice to find something new. Of course, this is all new for Zimmer, who was traded from the organization that drafted him, the Cleveland Guardians, to the Blue Jays on the eve of the regular season. And just in the nick of time, too, as the Blue Jays will be without Teoscar Hernandez for at least the next two weeks — almost certainly more — after he suffered an oblique strain on a swing Wednesday night.

In Hernandez’s absence, you can expect to see a rotation of Zimmer and Raimel Tapia in the Blue Jays outfield depending on matchups. With both being left-handed hitters, those matchups might not be so easy for outside observers to predict. But, generally speaking, if the Blue Jays prefer a more contact-oriented approach against that night’s stating pitcher, Tapia will play. If the club wants pop, Zimmer likely gets the nod — although Tapia’s 109.9-mph maximum exit velocity is no joke.

Tapia’s had more success against left-handed pitching than Zimmer over the course of his career, which will be one consideration when a southpaw’s on the mound for the opposition. But Toronto’s starter is a factor, as well. Zimmer is a sublime outfield defender, still capable of the highlights you saw above today in his age-29 season. And the Blue Jays are even higher on Zimmer’s potential in centre field than public data would suggest they ought to be — so much so that George Springer will likely cede the position and play right on days Zimmer’s in the lineup.

So, it’s worth noting that Ross Stripling and his 44.5 per cent 2021 flyball rate will start vs. the Oakland Athletics on Friday, giving the Blue Jays reason to prioritize fielding their best outfield defence behind him. Alek Manoah’s also produced an elevated 40.6-per-cent fly ball rate over the course of his young career, giving the Blue Jays something to think about when he next takes the mound on Sunday.

There are other possibilities, too. Thursday night at Yankee Stadium, with hard-throwing right-hander Luis Severino on the mound for the New York Yankees, and high-strikeout, average-groundball, below-average-flyball right-hander Kevin Gausman starting for the Blue Jays, the club found room for Zimmer in centre, Tapia in right, and Springer at designated hitter. Two of Springer’s first seven starts this season have come at DH, a rate you can expect the Blue Jays to target going forward as the club plays 20 games in 20 days beginning Tuesday.

There wasn’t a ton of work for Zimmer on Thursday, as Gausman struck out nine over 5.2 innings of two-run ball in a 3-0 Blue Jays loss to the Yankees. In his second start with his new team, Gausman had his trademark splitter working, generating 13 of his 21 whiffs on the night with the pitch. We’re all well aware of it by now — but the pitch is just devastating.

“He threw some nasty splitters. He had their hitters off balance. He did a great job,” said Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo. “I feel really good about today just because of the way Gausman pitched. I feel like we’re going to have a chance to win every time he takes the mound because he’s got good stuff.”

Gausman deserved better, too. His first run crossed after Lourdes Gurriel Jr. botched a routine play in left, letting a weak flare off Jose Trevino’s bat — exit velocity: 85 mph — drop in front of him and kick off his glove, allowing Isiah Kiner-Falefa to scamper home from second.

And his second run crossed, again, thanks to a weak flare off Trevino’s bat — exit velocity: 74 mph — which dropped into no-man’s land and cashed Kiner-Falefa from second, where he was standing because his groundball to the left side four pitches earlier evaded Bo Bichette at short.

Kiner-Falefa and Trevino, the eight-nine hitters in New York’s lineup, produced four of the six hits Gausman allowed, three of them coming off bats at 85 mph or softer. That kind of night.

“Trevino just did a really good job,” Gausman said. “Just good pitcher’s pitches that he made an adjustment on. So, when they make adjustments like that, they’re tough. Obviously, they’re a good lineup. But, overall, I was happy. I felt like I gave us a chance to win.”

Meanwhile, nothing was coming off Blue Jays bats with much speed, as Luis Severino neutralized Toronto’s offence over five scoreless innings. A procession of six Yankees relievers then carried his effort home, preserving a series split between the AL East rivals this week in the Bronx, and leaving the Blue Jays with a 4-3 record through their first week of games.

“It was a good game. Gausman gave us a chance. The relievers gave us a chance. And we just didn’t come up with a big hit today,” Montoyo said. “We’re facing good pitching. Sometimes you face good pitching. So, you’ve got to give their pitchers credit for that. Because we do have good hitting. But you’ve got to give their pitchers credit.”

For his part, Zimmer went 0-for-3 out of the nine hole, reaching on an error and putting three balls in play. That’s not what he wanted. But they were only his second, third, and fourth plate appearances of the season. The closest he came to game reps over the past week was hitting off high-velocity pitching machines in batting cages. He spent the rest of his time settling in with his new team, getting brought up to speed on how the Blue Jays position their outfielders, advance scout opposition pitchers, and prepare for games.

“I’ve been trying to do as much as I can, just to keep my eyes going and see the ball coming out firm. A lot of it’s mental, honestly. You just try to stay prepared, keep yourself ready, and trust that your abilities and instincts will take over whenever your opportunity in a game comes,” he says. “The more you simplify it, the easier it’ll be.”

The last week has naturally been a whirlwind for Zimmer, who didn’t see his trade to the Blue Jays coming. He’d entered Guardians spring training positioned to earn regular corner outfield reps along with Oscar Mercado on either side of Myles Straw. But then Steven Kwan forced his way into the picture by sheer force of nature, hitting .469/.500/.531 during spring and convincing Cleveland to give him Zimmer’s roster spot. (Kwan’s gone on to bat .516/.655/.737 over his first 29 big-league plate appearances with eight walks vs. only one strikeout, by the way.)

The Blue Jays had expressed interest in Zimmer in the past as part of separate trade discussions and kept that line of discussion alive as opening day loomed. And once the Guardians decided to move on from Zimmer, who’d routinely flashed potential but never stuck as a regular in parts of five major-league seasons with Cleveland, a framework that saw reliever Anthony Castro heading the opposite direction quickly materialized.

“I figured it was a possibility at some point. Not a lot of guys stay in one organization forever. But I certainly wasn’t expecting it that soon,” Zimmer says. “But I’m happy to be here. I’ve really enjoyed it so far. This team has a lot of promise and we could do some pretty big things this year.”

It helps that Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins was Cleveland’s farm director when the club drafted Zimmer with the No. 21 overall pick of the 2014 draft. At the time, Zimmer was a late pop-up type with an unconventional swing from a school — the University of San Francisco — that wasn’t exactly a baseball powerhouse. But Atkins and his staff coveted the big, projectable athlete’s raw tools and had him within the top 10 on their draft board, making him an easy selection in the back half of the first round.

And Zimmer made it look like a pretty wise pick in his first full season, as he rode an .896 OPS up to double-A, started in centre field in the Futures Game, and finished the year ranked as Baseball America’s No. 31 overall prospect, MLB.com’s No. 26, and Baseball Prospectus’ No. 23. His production plateaued a bit in 2016, but he still reached triple-A and starred in the Arizona Fall League where he posted a .935 OPS. The following May, he was a big-leaguer at 24.

But a strikeout rate that progressively increased during his minor-league climb followed him to the majors, where he struck out at a 32.6-per-cent rate over his first three seasons. Time missed due to a broken hand from a slide, and a rib contusion from crashing into a Yankee Stadium wall, didn’t help. Neither did major shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum that held him out for the better part of a year. Nor the oblique injury he suffered while rehabbing it.

Ultimately, Zimmer played only 86 games at any level from 2018 through 2020, before managing a .227/.325/.345 line with a gnarly 35.1 per cent strikeout rate over 348 MLB plate appearances in 2021. With such sporadic, inconsistent playing time, Zimmer never had the runway to forge an identity as a big leaguer or settle into an approach that worked for him. He tried to do too much in the brief opportunities he had, attempting to emulate what worked for other players who found success quicker than he did.

“I was trying to do something or be somebody that I'm not,” he says. “From an approach standpoint, I understand myself as a player better now versus then. That’s been a big thing over the last year or so — understanding who I am, what I can do, and honing in on that.”

Even in sparse major-league run, what Zimmer does best has jumped out. He’s a spectacular centre-field defender, one with plus numbers in whichever advanced defensive metric you prefer. And the Blue Jays are even higher on him internally, believing he hasn’t produced a large enough sample for the publicly available data to truly represent his ability.

At the plate, Zimmer’s raw tools are off the charts. He’s twice posted maximum exit velocities among the top 10 per cent of the league and his sprint speed last season ranked within MLB’s 97th percentile.

His average home-run distance in 2021 — from an admittedly small sample of eight — was the second-longest among players to put at least 150 balls in play. He was responsible for the 18th and 38th longest home runs hit MLB-wide last season, the former a 471-foot bomb to straightaway centre at Progressive Field that still stands as the longest ever hit by a Cleveland batter in the Statcast era:

Of course, Blue Jays fans have seen a few outfielders with loud tools who struggle to put it all together before. See: Fisher, Derek. Or Brito, Socrates. Also: Alford, Anthony. Zimmer belongs to that class of athletic specimen capable of producing uncommon measurables, receiving opportunity after opportunity from a chorus of MLB clubs hoping to be the one employing them should they ever realize their vast potential. Typically out of minor-league options — as Zimmer is — these individuals can be well travelled.

Considering how low risk — and potentially high reward — a flier on a talent like that is, it’s obviously worth a shot. But it’s also tougher for win-now clubs like the Blue Jays to award the playing time necessary — and stomach the poor results that could follow — to find out if there’s gold at the end of the rainbow. But no Blue Jays fan should need reminding that Jose Bautista once belonged to that class of player. As did Edwin Encarnacion. Hernandez, too.

And in a very baseball turn of fate, it’s Hernandez’s injury that’s creating an opening for Zimmer to receive some run and show everyone what he can do. The Blue Jays are eager to find out. Zimmer’s just keen to contribute.

“I’m really excited to be here. That was the coolest thing about the trade: joining a team that isn’t just playing in the big-leagues — that’s playing to win a World Series,” he says. “Obviously, I don’t make the lineup. But I’ll be ready. Whatever opportunity I get, I’ll be ready to play.”

When submitting content, please abide by our  submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.
We use cookies to improve your experience. Learn More or change your cookie preferences. By continuing to use this site, you agree to the use of cookies.
close