New York Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo is mired in a miserable slump, and manager Aaron Boone provided his thoughts on the situation this week.
Some have wondered if Rizzo's struggles are a result of any lingering concussion issues from last year, but Boone immediately shot that notion down.
“I don’t think so because he had a really great winter,” Boone said, via Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. “Even at the end of last year, in September, he was doing really well. And then his winter was excellent. Even going back to last year, he’s in excellent shape. Even the start of the season, he’s had some runs where he’s been very good. So he’s not far from that cusp of moving that needle where he’s all of a sudden not on the bottom.”
It should also be noted that Rizzo was much better earlier in the season this year, as he slashed .258/.321/.417 with five home runs and 15 RBI between March and April. In May, however, he is slashing just .228/.294/.304 with two homers and 10 RBI.
On the 2024 campaign overall, Rizzo has seven long balls and 25 RBI and lays claim to a meager .677 OPS.
It could just be that Yankees' Anthony Rizzo is getting old
Yes, last season, Rizzo endured post-concussion syndrome during the second half of the season, which resulted in him homering just once over his last 46 games.
That doesn't seem to be the case this year.
Again, Rizzo has already homered seven times, and there haven't been any instances where collided with anyone or fell roughly that would result in any sort of head injury. He is merely just laboring at the plate.
It's important to keep in mind that Rizzo is now 34 years old, so this could simply just be a natural decline for him. If we're being honest, Rizzo started showing signs of a downturn during his latter days with the Chicago Cubs.
Rizzo slashed a rather paltry .222/.342/.414 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, and in 141 games between the Cubs and the Yankees in 2021 (Chicago traded him to New York at the deadline), Rizzo slashed a pedestrian .248/.344/.440 with 22 dingers and 61 RBI.
The Parkland, Fl. native did show signs of a resurgence in 2022, at least from a power perspective. That year, he recorded a slash line of .224/.338/.480 with 32 home runs and 75 RBI. But again, his numbers still weren't great outside of the homers.
Rizzo really hasn't been a consistently good hitter since 2019, when he posted an OPS of .924.
It stands to reason that he just isn't the same player anymore, as also evidenced by his sharp decline defensively.
Luckily for the Yankees, Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton have put on a striking power display over the first two months of the season, so New York's offense has managed to remain elite without great contributions from Rizzo.
Rizzo is earning $17 million in base salary this season and has a club option for the same amount in 2025. Needless to say, barring a turnaround from Rizzo sometime this season, it doesn't look like the Yankees will be exercising that option.
New York owns the best record in the American League at 39-19.
Follow Us
Subscribe