Dusty Baker eventually moved down his list to Ryan Zimmerman, a veteran in pursuit of a rebound. Zimmerman was nagged early last season by plantar fasciitis in his foot and throughout the year by an obstinate batting average. Zimmerman hit a lagging .218 during the worst season of his career. During his 12th season in the league, he began to learn what “exit velocity” meant, since it was one of the minimal personal bright spots at the plate last season. Zimmerman kept hitting the ball hard, a fact confirmed by eye and technology, but was left kicking around with an average near the dreaded Mendoza Line. Frustration was the enemy as much as curveballs and cut fastballs.“Zim’s looking real good, too,” Baker said. “He’s so far ahead of last year because he had that foot [problem] going into spring training. I had to really program him, ask him how he was doing every day, start him out with two innings, three innings — you guys remember. See, he’s way ahead of where he was in spring training.”There was one month of bliss for Zimmerman, a self-described “streaky” hitter. May brought a .262 average bolstered by seven home runs. He thought cautious early management of his foot had helped him to a strong second month of the season. But, May was a blip. During the next five months, Zimmerman hit the same amount of home runs as he did in May. The 15 total home runs were his fewest since 2011, when he had 395 at-bats. His numbers across the board had never been more meek. His .642 OPS was drastically below his .809 career OPS and the banner years of his career, when he was pushing toward .900. Zimmerman was last in the National League in OPS among first baseman.
Source: Ryan Zimmerman expects to stop offensive slide – Washington Times