The New York Yankees have been the best team in the American League to start the 2024 campaign, and their 48-21 record is only behind the Philadelphia Phillies in terms of winning percentage. Even more impressive for the Yankees is the fact that they have managed to do this without one of their expected top contributors in Anthony Rizzo playing all that well.
Rizzo's numbers on the year are not good (.220 BA, 7 HR, 25 RBI, .611 OPS), and he's been mired in a 1-34 slump at the plate to begin the month of June. As a result, Rizzo has been riding the pine more frequently as of late, but even with that being the case, he revealed that he is still grinding behind the scenes in an effort to find a way to get back on track when he does find himself in the lineup.
Yankees hoping Anthony Rizzo can figure things out soon
Slumps are par for the course when it comes to a full 162-game MLB season, but Rizzo has been freezing cold as of late. It hasn't hurt New York too badly to this point, as they are blazing hot right now, but they'd obviously rather have someone in the lineup who is producing instead of a slumping Rizzo who can't seem to find any way to get on base.
When Rizzo has been sent to the bench, DJ LeMahieu has often been the guy filling in for him at first base. The problem is that LeMahieu hasn't been much better in his limited action this season (.229 BA, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .586 OPS). However, he's gone 4-9 over his past three games, which automatically makes him more productive than Rizzo this month.
New York will have to ride out this cold stretch and hope that Rizzo can bounce back, but with LeMahieu seemingly figuring things out, it wouldn't be too surprising to see him get more at-bats until Rizzo comes to life. A platoon of sorts seems like the best solution for the time being, with Rizzo playing against righties, and LeMahieu playing against lefties.
Could the Yankees potentially pursue a first base option ahead of the trade deadline? If Rizzo's struggles linger, it is a possibility, but New York is going to give him time to get back on track before making any sort of big decision like that. Even if they have to turn to LeMahieu over Rizzo more frequently, that's a better option than potentially sacrificing some of their farm system talent to address a position where they already have two veterans holding down the fort.
Either way, Rizzo's struggles aren't for a lack of effort, and while he is getting older, he has a track record of success that suggests that he will break out of this slump sooner rather than later. For as long as it continues, though, Yankees manager Aaron Boone is going to have a tough time figuring out who should start at first base on a day-to-day basis, and all eyes are going to be on Rizzo over the next few games to see if he can find a way out of this horrid slump.
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