For what’s been an embarrassing 2023 season for the Yankees, the scraper has finally met the barrel bottom (…he typed, with eye rolling skepticism…) I write this as it’s no longer on field and front office baseball ineptitude, it’s dice rolling with someone’s brain health, which is cringe worthy at best.
I generally don’t mind giving players, coaches, and front offices a pass in situations in which we as fans clearly don’t have all the information. There are certainly many, many things that go on behind the scenes that aren’t shared publicly but factor greatly into the behavior of those we’re watching.
That said, I hope we learn that there is pertinent information that we don’t know about the team’s handling of Anthony Rizzo, because what we do know is unsettling, and that’s the most politically correct manner I can state it.
What we do know, factually:
On May 28th, Rizzo was sporting a .376 OBP, .505 SLG, a 146 wRC+ and 1.7 fWAR. The wRC+ was 14th among 162 qualified hitters and the fWAR placed him 21st among the 162.
Also on May 28th, the hip of Fernando Tatis Jr. and head of Anthony Rizzo were moving in opposite directions and knocked into each other. Rizzo stumbled away in the same manner a drunk person would and took a knee. He was medically evaluated and cleared.
From then on, Rizzo posted a .271 OBP, .275 SLG, a 43 wRC+ and -0.9 fWAR. The fWAR made him the literal worst player in MLB.
As recently as July 22nd, when many in the media and fan base were understandably questioning Rizzo’s health, Aaron Boone answered that Rizzo “physically, he’s in a really good spot”.
When placed on the IL with post-concussion syndrome on Thursday, Rizzo said “in recent days” (plural) he had complained of “fogginess”, feeling “hungover” and sometimes “forgot the number of outs during games”. On Sunday, he struck out five times – the only time in 1,635 career games he’d done so.
Again, I’d like to think there’s a rational reason that the Yankees didn’t handle the situation differently, but I’m not sure it matters. Just from what we know, this calls for – and I don’t say this lightly – someone to lose their job.
At a bare minimum, there were visual signs, very strong statistical clues, and Rizzo himself saying in recent days something was wrong – and they still kept sending him out there anyway, likely at least since this past weekend. Finally, after two and a half months, further testing showed “his reaction time was slower”, according to Bryan Hoch who covers the Yankees for MLB.com.
Unless information comes out that a member of the coaching staff or front office was pushing for further tests and was ignored, someone needs to lose their job, as does at least one person on the comically inept medical staff. Beyond simply being garbage human beings, it’s negligence with regards to someone’s long term health.
I certainly hope that more information is made public so we can all understand how something like this can transpire, but regardless, it’s the most serious stain on this franchise in a while.
Did I miss something? Let me know. Leave a comment below or yell at me @mybaseballpage1 on Twitter and/or the “My Baseball Page” on Facebook.
PS: On a lighter note, MLB.tv is offering pretty big discounts for the remainder of the season. As I’ve said, it’s one of the best baseball investments I’ve made, you might want to check it out.
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