Yankees’ Anthony Rizzo Placed on Injured List with Post-Concussion Syndrome
NEW YORK — The New York Yankees have made the decision to place first baseman Anthony Rizzo on the 10-day injured list due to post-concussion syndrome. The team believes that the syndrome developed following a collision with Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres on May 28.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone stated that Rizzo had passed Major League Baseball’s concussion protocol at the time of the incident. However, Rizzo himself has mentioned feeling more fatigued than usual, attributing it to the demanding nature of a long baseball season.
Rizzo explained, “You wake up some days feeling not very good; some days, you feel better. That’s kind of normal throughout the year. It was more walking back and saying, ‘Man, I don’t understand how I missed that pitch.’ I would swing at a pitch middle-away, and I thought it was three feet off the plate. Things like that really started making me concerned.”
Following the Yankees’ recent series against the Baltimore Orioles, during which Rizzo experienced the first five-strikeout game of his career, he reported feeling some “fogginess” to the team’s medical staff.
Rizzo played in two more games against the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday and Tuesday before undergoing another round of neurological testing on Wednesday. The tests revealed signs of cognitive impairment, leading to the decision to treat Rizzo with supplements. The first baseman’s doctor is confident in a full recovery.
Rizzo said, “Everything that they talked about basically came back with a silver lining — that I’m not crazy for walking back to the dugout consistently thinking, ‘Man, how did I miss that pitch?’ It came back saying I’m moving a lot slower than the normal person’s reaction time would be, and that’s definitely alarming, especially for what we do for a living.”
The 33-year-old Rizzo, who turns 34 next week, has had a challenging season. He is currently batting .244/.328/.378 with 12 home runs and 41 RBIs in 99 games. However, his performance has significantly declined since the collision with Tatis.
Before May 28, Rizzo boasted an impressive .304/.376/.505 slash line with 11 home runs and 32 RBIs. Since then, he has struggled, hitting just .172/.271/.225 with one homer and nine RBIs.
“I don’t consistently miss these pitches that I’ve been swinging at and missing — really just blatantly missing, big time, not even coming close,” Rizzo admitted. “I can’t put a stamp on when that happened, but the last few days, I’ve voiced it a little more.”
Boone added, “I think there’s probably him looking back, going, ‘I didn’t feel quite right.'”
In response to Rizzo’s placement on the injured list, the Yankees have recalled infielder/outfielder Oswaldo Cabrera from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Cabrera will join the team for Thursday’s series opener against the Houston Astros. Boone stated that the Yankees will evaluate Rizzo on a week-to-week basis. In the meantime, Jake Bauers and DJ LeMahieu will share playing time at first base.
“We’ll see how [Rizzo] progresses and how he’s feeling, and hopefully we’ll get him back,” Boone concluded.