By Sal Maiorana
May 29, 2024
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Sal Maiorana, a friend of the site, shares some of his thoughts on the Yankees.
For Sal's analysis on the New York Yankees, you can subscribe to Sal Maiorana's free Pinstripe People Newsletter at https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe.
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It's Time For an Anthony Rizzo Benching
Now that DJ LeMahieu is back, it’s time to have a conversation about sitting Anthony Rizzo because he has deteriorated into a below average first basemen.
Rizzo wasn’t the only one to blame for a terrible loss to a terrible team Tuesday night, but he certainly had a starring role and Aaron Boone has to get him out of the lineup, play LeMahieu at first, and live with slumping Oswaldo Cabrera at third for a little while.
With the Yankees ahead 3-2 in the eighth, ex-Yankee Willie Calhoun led off against Luke Weaver with a single, but Weaver got the next two men out and should have had the third. Instead, Rizzo failed to come up with a ground ball to his right hit by super pest Luis Rengifo to keep the inning alive. At first it was ruled an error, which it absolutely 100 percent was, but of course this being MLB, it was changed to a hit which was utter baloney.
Anyway, Boone went to Clay Holmes to face Taylor Ward who is one of the few Angels who is actually a consistent threat, and Holmes blew the save as he served up a two-run go-ahead double.
“The first couple of weeks were pretty brutal, but overall the last five or six weeks, I would say pretty normal,” Rizzo said of his declining fielding as he ranks as barely a league average fielder after spending most of his career as one of the best at his position. “A play like today’s, I’ve got to make it. Just over-slid it and it bounced off my glove. Clay comes in the game and gives up a hit. He should have never been in the game if I make that play. It’s a tough one.”
But much worse than his fielding has been his hitting as he has fallen off a cliff lately. So far in May he’s hitting .227/.296/.307 with a pathetic OPS of .603. Take it back one calendar year to the day he suffered his concussion on May 28, 2023, his OPS is an identical .603 which is the seventh-worst in MLB in that span. Seventh-worst in all of baseball!
In this game, Rizzo grounded out with men on first and second to end the first inning. He struck out with a man on first to end the third. In the fifth, he grounded into a fielders’ choice so he was on base and scored when Austin Wells - who has also been a black hole on offense - lined an RBI double. And then in the eighth he grounded out.
At 35 years old, Rizzo is giving the Yankees nothing on offense, not much on defense, and should not being an every-day player until he shows signs of snapping out of his funk.
Benching him once or twice should be a real consideration.
