And in 2022, after just 35 games, amid a debilitating shoulder injury, he was DFA\u2019d from the Cubs and disappeared from the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t regret it,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cI needed a mental break.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think I wanted to do all the stuff to rehab and come back, so I decided I was done.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a big leaguer, Simmons was always his own person. A somewhat unpredictable personality, he could be both prickly and affable. On this day, approached out of the blue to do his first interview in years, the shortstop known as Simba was introspective.<\/p>\n
He asked to sit down in the dugout to chat, seemingly aware that an opportunity had come to finally get all of this off his chest. To talk about his sudden departure from the big leagues, and his random re-emergence in Mexico \u2014 a league that offers an outlet to play, without a legitimate hope of anything more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never really cared for All-Star games, never really cared for the Hall of Fame,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s cool. Like I recognize the accolades are special. But it never really pushed me. I wanted to be good. I wanted to help my team win.\u201d<\/p>\n
And from 2022 to 2025, Simmons never felt a strong pull to return. He had made nearly $72 million in his 10-year MLB career, and save for four games in the 2023 World Baseball Classic and six games in winter ball a few months later, he didn\u2019t play. Then before last season, as the Cura\u00e7aoan tells it, he was hanging with his countryman Jonathan Schoop.<\/p>\n
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\n Simmons participated in the 2023 World Baseball Classic with Team Netherlands and then largely disappeared from baseball. (Gene Wang\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Simmons light-heartedly mentioned joining Schoop in Mexico as a backup. He says it wasn\u2019t intended to be serious, but Schoop took it that way, and called the Dorados\u2019 general manager. Simmons was intrigued enough to indulge the possibility.<\/p>\n
With all the time off, and his body finally willing to cooperate, a pathway opened up to try again, to find that love of the game, even if the backdrop looked far different.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fun, he said, repeating himself several times. \u201cIt\u2019s not the Major Leagues, where everybody throws 100. The competition is not the same level. But you still have a lot of talent. So the competition still gets me going. It\u2019s entertaining. There\u2019s a lot more music involved.\u201d<\/p>\n