Cleveland’s Zimmer hits a second-deck home run that won’t be forgotten
Bradley Zimmer knows that not long ago he was on the verge of becoming the forgotten man in Cleveland’s outfield. It had been years since he had found any success at the major-league level.
So on Thursday night, he hit a home run that nobody will forget.
In the first inning of a win over the Rangers, Zimmer hit a ball to the second deck in right field, a distance of 465 feet.
It was the third-longest home run hit by a Cleveland batter since 2015. But it wasn’t even Zimmer’s longest home run within the last few weeks. On Aug. 9, Zimmer belted a 471-foot home run that nearly cleared the second row of trees beyond center field.
During a stretch in which Cleveland has featured power hitters like Mike Napoli, Edwin Encarnacion and Franmil Reyes, it is Zimmer who owns the longest home run and two of the top three within the last six seasons.
Cleveland hitters have six home runs in the Statcast era (since 2015) that have traveled at least 460 feet. Encarnacion (466 feet) and Reyes (462) have one each. Napoli has two (463 and 460). Zimmer now has two within the past few weeks.
While the shot to the second deck will make for a quality highlight, Zimmer’s larger goal has been securing a role with Cleveland’s outfield heading into 2022, when he’ll be out of options.
Zimmer hit .241 with eight home runs, 15 doubles, 39 RBI and 18 stolen bases in 101 games as a rookie in 2017. He entered 2021 three-plus years removed from any success at the game’s highest level knowing he was running out of time. Through that time, the injuries and time sidelined took a toll.
“Yeah, it definitely hurts your confidence. It hurts your overall game,” Zimmer said. “I mean, you miss time like that and you essentially get forgotten. It’s always next guy in the line, so unfortunately the game doesn’t really wait for you. So you gotta grind through it and make your presence known and show that you can be an impact for the team. So [it was] a long road for me. I’m happy to be back where I belong and having some of that hard work pay off.”