MIAMI — There were years when Ryan Zimmerman made one of the treks of an everyman living in Washington. He put the kids in the car, and he and his wife would head down sizzling I-95 to his parents’ house in Virginia Beach in early July. Those years Zimmerman used his three- or four-day All-Star break with family away to get away from baseball.
Last year, Zimmerman stayed home. He spent time with his children and hung around the pool at his house in the Washington area. It was a full decompression from a year unlike any other he had gone through in the major leagues. Zimmerman was hurt and ineffective. It seemed each time he rebooted his season, he would get hurt again. After spending a month on the field, he spent a month off it, then returned to find everyone around him fine-tuned and in the flow. He hit .218.
Monday, Zimmerman enjoyed the space he had during this season’s All-Star break. He had a seat and a placard with his name on it next to the other National League All-Stars in Miami because he was voted the National League’s starting first baseman. It had been eight years since Zimmerman was last part of this game. The other time came back when he was just 24 years old and baseball’s return in Washington was still being unpacked.
“I like these things,” Zimmerman said. “I don’t get talked to as much as I do at home.”
Two spots over, bearded Bryce Harper was swarmed. Next to him, bearded Stephen Strasburg chatted with a small group. Another stop down was, you guessed it, bearded Daniel Murphy. Max Scherzer, who will start Tuesday night’s game, fulfilled his media duties with a formal press conference before the other players were aligned on the outfield warning track in Marlins Park. Zimmerman, 32, was the oldest among them. He finds that amusing and confusing.
“It’s crazy to think I am one of the older guys here,” Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman’s potent first half has brought him back among the game’s elite. Once the pre-All-Star break portion of the season finished, Zimmerman had a .330 average and 19 home runs. That was the most he has hit since 2013. He has hit more than 30 home runs once. That was in 2009, the season of his last All-Star Game appearance.
He has been asked throughout the season why this is happening. Zimmerman’s performance had dipped so far below his contractual cost, it was fair to wonder what the Nationals would do with him last offseason. If he could not perform, would manager Dusty Baker have to remove him from the everyday lineup? That time will come one day, when the Nationals have to wade through the delicate process of moving on from a trunk of the organization. It’s not here yet.
Zimmerman explains, over and over, the first half of his season was a byproduct of good health. Baker has rested him whenever possible during the Nationals’ brutish first-half schedule, yet Zimmerman ended up playing 80 of 88 games. Zimmerman has tamed his diet, “cutting the obvious bad things out,” he said, and found a consistent maintenance program. The latter serves him well as a self-described Type-A personality. He seeks regimented life. Routine is a peacemaker.
Maybe that was what became so unsettling, at least on the outside, about Zimmerman’s recent fluctuations. The injuries and bad performance that chased him since 2013 were difficult to control. He wanted to be better, obviously, and felt it was a matter of his body cooperating. Zimmerman drew from a second personality trait to help him maintain when he could not stave off another injury or bad result at the plate.
“I don’t get irritated much, to be honest with you,” Zimmerman said. “I’ve got a pretty good life. Baseball will wear you out, but once I leave the field — I was taught at a young age by some of the older guys to leave that there. At the end of the day, baseball’s a game. I love it. I want to win as much as anybody else. I want to get a hit every single time. Baseball’s baseball.”
Zimmerman was among the first up from his designated spot. He stepped beyond the rope shielding the field from passers-by. He walked alone toward a dugout. Eventually, several young stars, including Harper, who had to linger for final questions, began to follow. There was no hot drive to make, no pool to find. He was back among the All-Stars he hadn’t seen since before he had children to put in the car en route to grandma’s house. That will due for this break.
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
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