1. A Banged Up Outfield
At the start of the season, the Indians outfield looked like this – Michael Brantley, Bradley Zimmer, Lonnie Chisenhall. As the team entered the All-Star break, only one of those three remained – that being Brantley, who worked his way back to being an American League All-Star.
Chisenhall is out till likely early September with ongoing calf issues, and Zimmer might be the biggest letdown of the outfield, as he went from being a guy that could be penciled in everyday to a player who is now being questioned if he’ll be a long term answer in CF for the franchise.
“Offensively it’s been a struggle for him,” said manager Terry Francona about Zimmer upon sending him to Columbus back on June 5th. “The strikeouts … we talked to him about that.”
Zimmer’s struggles as the plate were a huge issues, hitting just .226 (24-for-106) with two homers and nine RBI in 34 games. He’s struck out 44 times in 106 at-bats (42 percent strikeout rate), while drawing just seven walks, and it was so bad that he was thrown down in usually the 7th or 8th spot in the lineup.
The outfield injuries saw Greg Allen, Rajai Davis and Tyler Naquin get more playing time, and the team inked free agent Melky Cabrera, then released him, then signed him again.
The shakeup in the outfield is a big reason the team is looking at options in the trade market.
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