What It Means:

He served as the team's designated hitter on Thursday and Friday, but reportedly is still feeling some soreness. He will be shut down for the next two weeks and then reevaluated. The Indians continue to insist that his recent setback is nothing serious, so for now we'll assume this is the team being extremely cautious with their second baseman.

Assuming he doesn't miss much time to start the season, our models project Kipnis for a .275 batting average, 14 homers, 72 RBI's and 15 steals over 640 plate appearances in 2017.