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Yankees decline club option on Anthony Rizzo

The Yankees have announced that they have declined their 2025 club option Anthony Rizzoand the veteran first baseman is now a free agent. It was an $11 million decision for the team, as Rizzo will receive a $6 million buyout instead of the $17 million salary he would have received had the option been exercised.

The move likely ends Rizzo’s three-plus season tenure in the Bronx, which began after he was traded to a trade deadline deal by the Cubs in July 2021. He hit well enough that the Yankees re-signed him to a two-year, $32 million contract. deal that winter, and since that deal included an opt-out clause after the first season, Rizzo converted that opt-out into another two-year, $40 million pact this offseason.

Rizzo’s 2022 season was by far his best in New York, as he hit .224/.338/.480 with 32 home runs over 548 plate appearances. He also got off to a good start in the first two months of the 2023 season before his career was changed by a first base collision with Fernando Tatis Jr. on May 28, 2023. Rizzo suffered a neck injury during the game and returned to action after sitting out a few games, but he then went into a brutal slump over the next two-plus months until he finally retired. IL early August. Rizzo was diagnosed with post-concussion, which of course led to quite a bit of controversy over how Rizzo was misdiagnosed in the first place and why his head injury went seemingly unnoticed for so long.

That IL placement ended Rizzo’s 2023 season, and he returned this year with more bad luck as he broke his right forearm after another awkward collision at first base in June. Rizzo was placed on the 60-day injured list and did not return until early September, before suffering another injury when he broke two fingers due to injury. Ryan Borucki field toward the end of the regular season. The broken fingers kept Rizzo out of the Yankees’ ALDS game with the Royals, although he returned and hit a respectable .267/.421/.300 over 38 PA in the ALCS and World Series.

Since Opening Day 2023, Rizzo has hit just .237/.315/.358 in 796 regular-season plate appearances, appearing in 191 of 324 games. His translation equates to 0.6 fWAR and a below-average 91 wRC+, and since Rizzo turned 35 last August, it was a pretty easy choice for the Yankees to decline the option.

The health issue is clearly of paramount importance to Rizzo as he returns to the open market, as potential suitors will certainly be concerned about what Rizzo has in store after fourteen Major League seasons. His track record and respected presence in the locker room likely mean he should be able to land some sort of big league contract for a low guaranteed salary, perhaps as a platoon player rather than a regular at first base. A return to the Yankees at a lower salary seems possible, but the more likely scenario is that New York bolsters the lineup with a bigger bat at first base, or perhaps rotates. DJ LeMahieu and others through the position.

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