Their hand may have been forced. This call-up may not have happened on their own terms. But make no mistake: The Indians wouldn't have promoted Bradley Zimmer if they didn't intend for him to stay.
Abraham Almonte is no Ben Zobrist, OK? He's not even Adrian Gonzalez. He's a 27-year-old journeyman who has occasionally flirted with starting duties but has ultimately never accumulated more than 232 at-bats in a season -- an obvious stopgap for a team with something better on the horizon.
So don't compare Zimmer's situation to that of Cody Bellinger, who ultimately forced the Dodgers' hand, or to that of Ian Happ, whose role moving forward remains to be seen. Unlike those two, the Indians will make every excuse to keep their top prospect around because it's the closest thing they have to a Plan A.
That isn't to say Zimmer is the best equipped of those three for this honor. He has severe contact issues. His strikeout rate (29.9 percent) at Triple-A this year would rank 12th-highest in the majors, between Khris Davis and Jonathan Villar, which gives you some idea of the kind of adjustment he's in for. And it was even worse last year.
But Bellinger had a 28.6 percent strikeout rate prior to his promotion, and it has hardly slowed him in the big leagues. It may also be true that too much is made of strikeout rate at a time when hitters are working to up their fly-ball rates at the expense of BABIP (the league-wide .293 mark is a 15-year low).
Like the Dodgers did with Bellinger, the Indians are catching Zimmer at the right time. He was riding an eight-game hitting streak during which he homered twice, stole three bases and raised his batting average from .253 to .294. He also struck out 29.7 percent of the time, but still, by promoting him while he's seeing the ball as well as he has all year, they're giving him his best chance to succeed. Poor timing won't be what puts him in a hole so deep he doesn't feel like he can climb out of it, beginning the endless cycle of promotions and demotions that can sidetrack a hitting prospect, as we've seen with Byron Buxton.
The Indians can't afford to waste that kind of time with Zimmer. He's already 24 years old.
So what does the best-case scenario look like? On more than one occasion, I've called Zimmer the next Grady Sizemore, meaning a power/speed threat whose on-base ability helps him outplay his batting average. And I know we've seen a lesser form of Sizemore in more recent years, so just to be clear, I'm referring to the one who starred for the Indians from ages 22 through 25, even earning first-round consideration in Fantasy. A more current example might be George Springer when he first came up and looked like a base-stealer.
But of course, the floor is much lower than that. You can't expect more than a .265 batting average from Zimmer at the rate he strikes out, and the Melvin Upton comp also comes to mind for a player with his profile.
But hey, relax -- that's the worst case scenario. We don't need to venture down that path with a fresh call-up. After all, with the unknown comes hope, and with this particular unknown comes a sparkling pedigree and a golden opportunity for a team that has been counting down to this day since selecting Zimmer 21st overall in the 2014 draft.
Players who run without sacrificing the power categories are a rare bunch these days, which makes Zimmer something close to must-add in traditional 5x5 formats and certainly ones that require five outfielders. If, however, you play in a points league, which are more often three-outfielder formats anyway, you might hold out to make sure the strikeouts don't doom him first, especially since your roster may already be overflowing with breakout outfielders in a year chock full of them (Michael Conforto, Aaron Altherr, Corey Dickerson, etc.).
