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The New York Yankees are still the best team in baseball, at least according to their impressive 50-24 record. The team has been on an absolute tear this season, bolstered by an impressive lineup that includes Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, among others. However, first baseman Anthony Rizzo doesn't quite fall into that category.
There are five players in the Yankees lineup currently hitting .260 or better with at least 250 plate appearances. The three below that mark are Giancarlo Stanton (.238), Gleyber Torres (.222), and Rizzo (.243). At this point, no one is going to say too much about Stanton, who is at least staying healthy up to this point and has hit 17 home runs. Torres and Rizzo, on the other hand, have been the weak links on this team all season.
Luckily, with Judge, Soto, and even Alex Verdugo keeping the line moving and scoring runs, the deficiencies of Torres and Rizzo have been somewhat overlooked. However, with each passing game, Rizzo's tenure with the Yankees has begun to look bleaker and bleaker. After Sunday's game against the Red Sox, that perception may have been cemented.
With the Yankees down 4-3 in the top of the seventh inning, Rizzo came to the plate with a man on first and second. On an 0-2 pitch, Rizzo rolled a grounder to first, fielded by Dominic Smith, who then tossed it back to pitcher Brennan Bernardino covering first base. However, Rizzo collided with the pitcher and fell to the ground on his wrist. The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal later reported that Rizzo suffered a fractured arm and would miss somewhere between four to six weeks.
Anthony Rizzo left the game after this collision at first base. pic.twitter.com/ee4gurvVFR
— ESPN (@espn) June 17, 2024
Yankees have enough reasons to move on from Anthony Rizzo
Neither the Yankees nor Rizzo wanted this sort of thing to happen. After all, Rizzo, at 34, is a veteran presence in the locker room. But this may have just signaled the end of his time in a Yankees uniform, streamlining what was bound to happen in the near future. Rizzo has been a shell of himself after suffering a concussion on May 28 of last year. Since returning on June 2, less than a week later, he's slashed .203/.282/.296 with nine homers and 37 RBIs in 483 plate appearances, per FanGraphs stats.
There are really two reasons why Rizzo could be sent out of the Bronx that go along with his current lack of production. The timing of the injury is very pertinent. The four to six weeks length of the injury diagnosis puts Rizzo out for pretty much the entirety of July. And what's coming up in July? The MLB trade deadline. Unlike last season, expect the Yankees to be a lot more active this year.
The Yankees were already being pegged to find someone to either platoon with Rizzo or outright replace him. Now, with him suffering yet another injury along with his bad play, that pretty much makes the Yankees' decision even easier. That is unless call-up first baseman Ben Rice becomes an upgrade of sorts. He's currently slashing .275/.393/.532 with 15 home runs, 40 walks, and nine steals in 60 combined games at the Double-A and Triple-A levels. There's also another prospect, TJ Rumfield.
The other reason this could accelerate the Yankees moving on from Rizzo is that Yankees' chairman Hal Steinbrenner is looking into cutting costs for next season. Rizzo, along with Torres, is high on the list of cost-cutting casualties. If the Yankees decided to move on from Rizzo now, they would owe him the remaining $17 million of his contract this season, along with a $6 million buyout for 2025. His club option for next season is $17 million.
This is the best version of the Yankees we've seen in some time. Nothing is exactly ideal about this situation for either party. But it does let the Yankees explore some options with at least some time between now and the trade deadline to figure things out.
