Jason Kipnis signed a six-year, $52.5 million contract extension with the Cleveland Indians in April that placed pressure on him entering the season.

"I might have taken it the wrong way," Kipnis admitted. "There's one of two ways to go about it. There's 'Hey, I have the security and the money now I can go out and just play the game of baseball.' I took the way, where, 'I've got this money, I've got to live up to it.' So I might have pressed at the beginning and tried to do too much.

"In hindsight that could have hurt me and played a little part of this season."

Kipnis, who went to the All-Star Game last season, has a slash line of .248/.344/.320.

"You can go one of two ways," he said. "Obviously it doesn't mean I'm going that way next year or the year after that. I can change. I can come to the realization that I have that in my back pocket and just go out and enjoy myself and play the game.

"This season has actually been a nice little learning curve and hopefully we can go toward that."