Ryan Zimmerman had a lot of time to think about life after baseball during the pandemic. Too much time, he's determined.
After opting out of the 2020 season over concerns for his family's health, Zimmerman decided, with lowered risks from playing as everyone becomes vaccinated, that he wasn't quite ready to be at home every day, opting to return for his 16th Major League season in 2021.
"Missing a whole year, I think it made me realize how much I still want to play golf," Zimmerman told The Sports Junkies during his first weekly 106.7 The Fan appearance last week, presented by MainStreet Bank. "I mean not play golf; play baseball. Sorry, The Masters is on TV."
(He's still working his way back into media shape.)
"That was quite a slip there," joked Junkies host John Auville.
"Realize how much I missed playing baseball," Zimmerman continued. "It also made me realize how much I'm not ready to be at home every day yet."
"I need baseball in my life I think still, and I missed just the competition and the preparation," he said. "Everything that goes along with playing in the big leagues. I missed all that and I couldn't be more excited to be back this year."
"Last year the decision was kind of, obviously I had a newborn, my mom's high-risk, and there were still so many unknowns, even in June, about this whole pandemic and things like that," Zimmerman explained. "That was kind of the reason. That, and honestly, I thought it was just gonna be kind of miserable, to play with no fans, to travel and not be able to hang out with your teammates or go out to dinners."
"To me when I think of playing baseball, shoot, I have a lot of fun when I play," he said. "And looking at the rules and looking at the situation, I didn't think it was gonna be very fun. And that's why I've said all along, I respect the heck out of all those guys who played through that last year.
"I was in a situation where the service time, the money issue, none of that was real reason for me to go through that last year. So I kind of just decided to put my family first, and whether you think it's selfish or whatever, that was kind of why I did it last year."
It seems the year off did him some good. Zimmerman was scorching the ball all throughout spring training, hitting .481 with six bombs. So far, he's carried that hot bat into the regular season, hitting .346 with nine hits, a double and a home run through his first eight games in 2021.
"In spring training, me and Max [Scherzer] were joking the other day, I was literally playing once every fourth or fifth day," Zimmerman said. "I was like a starting pitcher, but a position player in spring training. It was unbelievable."
Zimmerman feels less pressure to be an everyday contributor after the Nationals traded for power hitting first baseman Josh Bell in the offseason.
"He's gonna be playing first not every single day, but he's gonna be the regular first baseman," Zimmerman said. "And I'm 100 percent at peace with that. Actually, we've talked about this a little bit before, last year that was gonna be kind of the plan as well. Everyone asks what the number is. You don't put a number on it. It's not like I'm gonna start 40 games, 50 games. It's just I'm not gonna be the guy that's depended upon to play 130, 140 games, and for me, it gives me a chance to keep my body healthy and stay fresh."
"It's never been about if I can produce," he said. "It's just been about if I can stay healthy and stay on the field. So I think this gives me the opportunity to take care of my body, not go through that grind where, you have something wrong and you've got to play 10, 15 games in a row with it.
"You know, if you're gonna play a couple games — three, two, three, four games a week — you have those days to take care of yourself and stay healthy. I think spring training kind of shows you when I'm healthy and not playing every single day, that I can still be very productive and help the team win."
