Ryan Zimmerman was healthy enough for the Nationals to put him on the NLDS roster, so why didn’t he start any games against the Giants? Well, because he wasn’t actually healthy.
Zimmerman, who was out for two months with a hamstring injury and also battled chronic shoulder problems all season, told Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post that he was “hurt enough not to play.”
He was used as a pinch-hitter in every game, but never stayed in to play defense and was pinch-run for following his only hit of the series in Game 2.
His future position has been a constant topic of debate in Washington for a while now because of various injuries and Kilgore writes that Zimmerman “will likely move to first base next season, assuming the Nationals allow Adam LaRoche to leave via free agency.”
Before the shoulder problems Zimmerman was an excellent defensive third baseman and he played exclusively third base from 2006-2013 while logging nearly 10,000 innings there. He’s signed through 2018 at an average of $15 million per season.
