On Wednesday afternoon, the Ottawa Titans announced a series of roster moves. Brendon Dadson was placed on the 14-day injured list, Tyler Jandron was placed on the seven-day injured list, infielder and pitcher David Gauthier was signed to the roster, and perhaps most notably, Will Zimmerman, the Titans’ sparkplug outfielder and occasional leadoff hitter, had been released.
Zimmerman was previously acquired from the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks in the early stages of May, stepping into the Titans lineup in only their second game of the season in Joliet against the Slammers. Since then, Zimmerman has developed the reputation of being one of the Titans’ speedier players, routinely making exceptional plays in the outfield and making outs difficult on the defence. In his time in Ottawa, Zimmerman suited up in 38 games, while batting .280 with two home runs, 17 RBIs, and 15 stolen bases.
Recently, however, Zimmerman was placed on the 14-day injured list, and the 24-year-old hasn’t played in a game since July 1st, when he got one at-bat against the New York Boulders. With the Titans’ list of injured players filling up, and new players being signed to replace them, it has created a roster spot shortage in Ottawa, and someone needed to be released.
“We like Zimmerman,” said Titans manager Bobby Brown. “Sometimes in independent ball, you have a short roster and a short injured list, and with other guys being banged up, there are only so many spots.”
Despite that, this move seems to be less of a legitimate divorce and more of a transaction dictated by necessity. In an ideal world, when the roster spots open up for the Titans in the coming days and weeks, Brown hopes that Zimmerman could be back wearing the red pinstripes.
“But we still have plans for Zimmerman if he wants to keep playing here,” Brown added. “He and I will have a conversation here in the next 10 days.”
Of course, the feeling would need to be mutual. Zimmerman is free to sign a contract with another team in either the Frontier League or another team in the independent baseball landscape, but it seems an incredibly real possibility that he will be back with the Titans when that transaction would be allowable sometime in the coming weeks.
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