Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo has been placed on the injured list with what manager Aaron Boone called a “likely concussion.”
The Yankees recalled utility player Oswaldo Cabrera from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in a corresponding move.
Boone added that Rizzo’s injury likely dates back to a May collision with Padres outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. On a pickoff attempt, Tatis collided with Rizzo’s head/neck area. Initially, Rizzo appeared to favor his shoulder and also passed all concussion protocols after the game.
Anthony Rizzo is going on the IL with a "likely concussion" that they're traced back to the Tatis Jr. incident in late May
(via @ChrisKirschner) pic.twitter.com/N9RpgYpqUF
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) August 3, 2023
The injury clearly affected Rizzo, who has hit literally one of his 12 home runs since. He’s also batting an awful .172 since as the Yankee lineup continues to struggle.
In the meantime, per Boone, Jake Bauers and DJ LeMahieu will man first base.
The Yankees handled this in, to be frank, the worst possible way. It’s officially impossible to trust any injury news coming out of the organization anymore. Anyone who was watching the team could tell Anthony Rizzo wasn’t himself. It wasn’t just rust from the initial injury and sitting out a few games afterward. Something was wrong, but the team insisted Rizzo was fine.
Not so much, now that Rizzo reported feeling “fogginess” during the Baltimroe series last weekend. And yet, he played in the first two games of this week’s Rays series. Rizzo then sat out Wednesday’s series finale, and the Yankees avoided a sweep with a 7-2 win.
Boone called Rizzo’s status “week to week,” so fans should probably expect him to miss the rest of the season. Concussions are tricky like that. With New York falling out of the Wild Card race, the pressure is on Giancarlo Stanton and others to give Aarn Judge some support in the lineup.
Meanwhile, Rizzo is signed through at least next season, and the Yankees also hold an option for 2025. They can only hope he recovers well enough to start taking better swings again and look like his old self next year.
