The Yankees introduced that they’d declined their 2025 membership choice on Anthony Rizzo, and the veteran first baseman is now a free agent. The choice price the staff $11M, as Rizzo will obtain a $6M buyout as a substitute of the $17M wage he would’ve obtained if the choice had been exercised.
The transfer most likely ends Rizzo’s three-plus seasons within the Bronx, which started after he was a commerce deadline pickup from the Cubs in July 2021. He hit effectively sufficient that the Yankees re-signed him to a two-year, $32M deal that winter. Since that deal contained an opt-out clause after the primary season, Rizzo parlayed that opt-out into one other two-year, $40M pact the next offseason.
Rizzo’s 2022 season was simply his greatest in New York, as he hit .224/.338/.480 with 32 homers over 548 plate appearances. He was additionally off to a scorching begin within the first two months of the 2023 marketing campaign earlier than his profession was altered by a collision at first base with Fernando Tatis Jr. on Might 28, 2023. Rizzo picked up what was deemed a neck harm on the play and returned to motion after sitting out a couple of video games, but he then went right into a brutal droop over the following two-plus months till lastly occurring the IL at first of August. Rizzo was identified with post-concussion syndrome, which naturally led to fairly a little bit of controversy over how Rizzo was misdiagnosed within the first place and why his head-related harm went seemingly unnoticed for thus lengthy.
That IL placement ended Rizzo’s 2023 season, and he returned to extra dangerous harm luck this yr when he fractured his proper forearm after one other awkward collision at first base in June. Rizzo went on the 60-day injured record and didn’t return till the beginning of September, and he then suffered additional harm when he had two fingers damaged by a Ryan Borucki pitch close to the top of the common season. The damaged fingers saved Rizzo out of the Yankees’ ALDS matchup with the Royals, although he returned to hit a decent .267/.421/.300 over 38 PA within the ALCS and World Sequence.
Since Opening Day 2023, Rizzo has hit solely .237/.315/.358 in 796 regular-season plate appearances and 191 of 324 video games. This interprets to 0.6 fWAR and a below-average 91 wRC+, and since Rizzo turned 35 final August, it made for a fairly straightforward name for the Yankees to say no the choice.
The well being query is paramount for Rizzo as he returns to the open market, as doable suitors will undoubtedly have considerations about what Rizzo nonetheless has within the tank after 14 main league seasons. His monitor document and revered locker room presence most likely imply that he ought to be capable of land some type of large league contract for a low assured wage, if possible as a platoon bat somewhat than an everyday at first base. A return to the Yankees at a decrease wage appears doable. Nonetheless, the likelier state of affairs is that New York both fortifies the lineup with an even bigger bat at first base or maybe rotates DJ LeMahieu and others by way of the place.
