The Yankees were rained out today but will place first baseman Anthony Rizzo on the 10-day injured list prior to tomorrow’s doubleheader, per Lindsey Adler of The Athletic, relaying word from manager Aaron Boone. Fellow first baseman Ronald Guzmán will have his contract selected in a corresponding move. Marly Rivera of ESPN first noted that Guzmán was in the Yankee clubhouse. Guzmán is not currently on the 40-man roster, meaning a corresponding move of some kind will be required to open a spot for him there.
The 27-year-old Guzmán spent his entire career with the Rangers until this year. From 2018 to 2021, he got into 243 games, hitting 31 home runs in that time but striking out often and producing poor batting averages. He’s struck out in 28.8% of his career plate appearances thus far, well above this year’s 22.3% MLB average. His overall batting line is .227/.304/.414, production that was 16% below league average, as evidenced by his wRC+ of 84. He was outrighted by the Rangers at the end of last season and elected free agency.
In March, the Yanks brought Guzmán aboard on a minor league deal, sending him to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. In 90 games there this year, Guzmán is still striking out 27.6% of the time but he’s also walked in 11.8% of his plate appearances and added 12 long balls. In total, he’s slashing .260/.357/.466 for a wRC+ of 119. He’ll try to bring some of those improved results up to the majors, with his left-handed bat making a nice fit for the short porch in right field.
The reason the Yankees have opted to bring up Guzmán is due to the situation surrounding their regular first baseman Rizzo. Dealing with back problems for much of the season, he hasn’t played in a week after undergoing an epidural on Thursday. While it’s hoped that this will lead to greater relief for Rizzo in the long run, he’s dealing with some side effects in the short term. Yesterday, manager Aaron Boone told Andy Martino of SNY yesterday that Rizzo was dealing with some headaches after the epidural. In a video shared by SNY on Twitter, Boone says that the headaches are now keeping Rizzo from playing more than the back issue.
Rizzo is having a strong season overall but has slumped recently, with the creeping back injury possibly playing some role in that. Through the end of July, he was hitting .228/.348/.504 but has only hit .208/.299/.442 since the calendar flipped to August. Signed to a two-year, $32MM deal in the offseason, Rizzo can opt out of the final one year and $16MM this winter and return to free agency if he so wishes. With Rizzo out of action for the past week, DJ LeMahieu has seen most of the time at first. However, LeMahieu needs some time off himself, with Adler relaying word from Boone that the infielder is dealing with a toe issue. The club will hope that Guzmán can step in and help make up for the absence of Rizzo and the banged-up LeMahieu. Leading the AL East by as much as 15 1/2 games earlier this year, the Yanks are now just 5 and 5 1/2 games ahead of the Rays and Blue Jays, respectively.
Should Rizzo return to health in a few days, Guzmán can’t be easily sent back down to the minors as he is out of options. Since the trade deadline has passed, if the club wants to remove him from the active roster, they would have to designate him for assignment and then put him on waivers. However, if he plays well enough to hang onto his roster spot, he could be retained for future seasons via arbitration.
I said earlier that if Guzman plays a game for the Yankees then something very bad will have to happen. Nothing else to add now.
FWIW Guzman has been putting up some very good numbers in AAA recently.
So, the championship caliber, Brian Cashman/Hal Steinbrenner Yankees dynasty is comprised of Ronald Guzman, Aaron Hicks, Tim Locastro, IKF, Donaldson, Marwin Gonzales, & Torres?
Yikes, we are in trouble. Way to go B-Cash…Bang-up job.
Don’t forget Harrison Bader!
Have to see him before I can forget him. So far he’s more an idea than an actual player.
Unless things change within the front office, I don’t see #28 happening any time soon. I could be wrong though.
You aren’t.
Hal messed up by mandating payroll stay beneath the LTT a few years ago. What they should’ve done was kept plugging away with FA/trades and not worry about the taxes. That’s really insignificant considering how much playoffs money they stand to gain with deep playoffs runs. Second most valuable franchise in all of sports and they’re penny-pinching. Smh
That sums it up. You are quite correct unfortunately
Kashman always ops for the second or third best player, someone willing to take short-term contracts, which usually means an old or injured or both player. So now he has ripped what he has sold. All his old and injured players are on the IL. Unfortunately, except for Aaron hicks, whose body is there, but that’s about it, he does nothing.
YBC: That’s the worst part, as my recent tangents have noted: they’re *not* penny-pinching though. They just think they are until they have to spend on someone we don’t need, who isn’t as good as the player we should’ve had, for roughly the same costs. It’s why Hal feels these deals aren’t worth it. They keep giving out all this money to all the wrong players and wondering why it doesn’t work and they don’t play well….
It’s the ultimate stars and scrubs lineup. Judge/Stanton/Rizzo and a bunch of below average bats.
“Star”. Stanton and Rizzo are both out now.
“Stars” Yankees 2022 team payroll > Heart
Haha. No it’s just Judge. Rizzo and Stanton are injured yet again.
Ha ha ha clipper, you sound like you’re being sarcastic. Now it’s the Aaron Judge show, and the rail riders. Unsurprisingly all the old and injured players that Kashman acquired, are mostly on the injured list. Who could’ve foreseen that, certainly not Cashman. now as we limp towards the postseason, which we can probably get there with a 500 record which is what we have now, even if we win no more games over the rest of the season which is quite possible.
We are without the services of any possible player that might be able to contribute something on hitting.
Stanton injured yet again, no surprise, Rizzo, history of injury ,injured yet again ,again no
surprise. Carpenter, 36 years old injured. Bader, in a boot still. Hicks miraculously is not injured yet, remains on the team in spirit only. As he is doing absolutely nothing.
Gleyber and donaldson are still there, but again hardly ever do anything, and certainly not in a big spot. Neither one of them should still be here, gleber should’ve been traded when he had a value. Donaldson should never been acquired, He’s washed up. And I would rather have seen Urschella out there who is Actually doing better than he is. But that’s no surprise, Gio has always done well when he was not injured and he was clutch. I could go on but you get the point, and I think we are in accord.
The unfortunate thing to me is that despite this debacle that we are witnessing, nothing will change in the front office. Some people are hoping that the Yankees completely collapse ,don’t make the postseason and think they’ll be changes made as a result. The only changes would be cosmetic as they’ve done before ,maybe fire a few batting coaches or pitching coaches or whatever. Cashman will remain regardless, the clueless boone will remain ,also unfortunately, and therefore the absolutely nothing will change.
I do agree with you, DR. And, to add to your points, what is probably most frustrating to me is that the Yankees would be in almost the same exact financial position right now if they had just paid for the right players (in dollars or prospect capital) they should’ve acquired all along, instead of trying to get cute with payroll, good deals, and fire sales. In paying for those players they should never have acquired or extended, they basically paid for the premier players anyway, but without all that production and health that comes along with them.
Prime example you actually brought up on the other thread: Yankees need a starting SS + defense + offense… so, instead of paying $35M for Correa, they pay $25/year for Donaldson, who can’t hit, and $4.7M for IKF who can’t hit and is an average SS, defensively, plus the players it cost to acquire him.
Now, I’m no fan of Correa, but if anyone thinks Cashman’s 42-step plan to get IKF as our starting SS and 36-year-old Donaldson as our starting 3B was even half as good as MN convincing Cashman to take them so he could get a better player than them both (put together), they don’t watch baseball.
Would you rather have Correa for this season?
Goastros: So, the answer, to clarify my remarks, is that I believe Correa would’ve been much better for the Yankees (production & postseason goals) than IKF and Donaldson are.
I’ll qualify my answer by restating a couple points as well. The first is: personally, I wouldn’t want Correa on the Yankees. But to be honest and objective, he would certainly be a huge asset to the team. Next, I do like IKF, but as a UTL guy, which is what he should’ve been all along. Last, i never would’ve thought Donaldson would be offensively impotent, but it besides the $50M point.
I am shocked, honestly, that Correa didn’t return to Houston. I am curious what his market is going to be moving forward when he opts out. I think he’s done nothing but improve his stock for FA.
I don’t think the same deal with Correa was on the table for the Yankees. If they didn’t sign him to a 300mm+ megadeal, he wasn’t going there.
Cost for this season would have been similar, but the extra years of commitment and salary would have made it tougher to swallow.
I’m confident he will be this year’s Luke Voit.
man have the mlb gods have not been kind to your team last few years with injuries, but like i heard wanio say on the radio good teams find a way to win, and i feel that nyy will figure out how to win even if judge has to drag you into the postseason kicking and screaming. imo as a cards fan i think the trade of jm is the reason for your tailspin, from what i hear on the local sports station in stl, the players in nyy weren’t to happy losing jm, from what i heard he was a rock in that rotation behind cole. now i will say this at the time i didn’t like the trade because we traded away a gg cf a strength for a pitcher. now harrison will frustrate you with his streakiness at the plate but he will win you games with his glove. long and short the jm trade was a bad move to make because it seems it effected the clubhouse chemistry and it seems like cash doesn’t have a feel for the teams chemistry.
Brodie: You’re right on point. Cashman has no feel for the team chemistry and Boone can’t control the team to nurture the chemistry – he’s like a substitute teacher. You’re right about Judge bringing us into the postseason, but all indications from the team’s performance is that it’s going to be another early exit. Cole still can’t perform in big games, the offense, aside from Judge, is depressing, and the team chemistry has been disrupted with no real idea of how to rebalance it.
The biggest issue is that Cashman doesn’t perceive the JM move as anything more than a zero-sum trade (like all other acquisitions), which is why we have a $235M roster that can’t perform. I thought I was wrong about them because this is exactly how I thought they were going to be coming out of the offseason, but the outperformed expectations in the first half.
Rarely does a team go into the playoffs ice cold and have any type of long-term success.
@yc as much as i don’t want to see it because i want my birds to go on a magical run and win the ws in the old guards last year (mo, #5, and possibly wanio). i can see the yanks pulling an 06 cards team, a team riddled with injuries and stumbling into the playoffs with .5 game to spare. picture this if you will, last 2 to 3 weeks left of the season your big cogs coming back off injury playing better than what your record shows and go on a tear, but i forgot my pen to write this all down and i shat the bed again. sorry i had to throw a tool reference in there but i can see a scenario where nyy stumbles in no one believes in them and they win it all.
Brodie, I do hope you’re right, my friend. I can envision a scenario where that happens, and if it does, Cashman deserves none of the credit because it will truly be magical, man.
I’ve been watching a bunch of Cardinal games. What a fun team to watch. Waino’s curveball is insane, man.
@yc funny story about wanio’s cb, when he was younger his older brothers told he would never get anyone out if he didn’t have a curve. so until he hit us the only pitch he ever knew was the cb he practiced day and night. he went on to say it wasn’t until he and getting drafted he didn’t start to learn other pitches. for those that want sources, the source is wanio himself on his weekly interview with 101 espn (the local sports radio in stl).
Something bad happened as a result of playing him. Boy does that guy stink.
Yeah, I’m fairly certain that nobody above Boone cares just how bad the Yankees are as long as they meet two criteria:
1) Make the playoffs, even if it’s the WC #2, and
2) Stay under, or as close to, the CBT in order to accomplish goal #1.
He hasn’t done anything at the major league level another bust!!!
It’s fascinating how much the team that looked so potent just six weeks ago has completely come apart. They will have to DFA someone to create a roster spot, who might have value, to bring on a player almost certainly destined to be DFA’d later. The team is barely getting by as it is. Just about every trade/signing they have made in the last 13 months seems to be a failure….and that’s not all Cashman’s fault (some is). Injuries and inexplicably poor performance by many have “contributed” immensely.
Mikenmn;
Agree with some of what you wrote above, but for the hundredth time……
Older players get injured more than younger players, and take more time to heal when they do.
If Mr. Cashman has not yet figured that out being in a ML FO for decades, then maybe he can have his crack analytic group run some numbers for him (which I’m sure someone in the Yankee hierarchy will misrepresent it to the media….who will believe it and disseminate it as a “facts matter” narrative).
Every year at this time this is what we hear from the Yankees and their fans….”oh, but for the injuries we had!”.
Can’t imagine a GM out there that would make an offer to Rizzo’s agent this off season. Old and a bad back. He gets healthy/heals this off season and returns to the Bronx?
Rizzo holds an option for 2023. He’ll exercise it I’m sure.
Let’s hope so. The guy is old and always injured.
30 Homeruns from old and injured? I’m in on that.
Rizzo doesn’t have an option for 2023. He signed a (2) year, $32M deal in 2022 so he has a contract for 2023 already. What he does have is an opt out provision where he can give him up his 2023 contract/salary and become a free agent again. It will be interesting to see what Rizzo chooses to do given his balky back. I’m guessing he still opts out but if his medical diagnosis is bad then he might just ride out 2023 with NY and make many trips to the IL.
Dorothy_Mantooth;
I can’t see him opting out.
The rush he’s had playing for the Yankees and Yankee Stadiums’ short RF porch have revitalized his career for a bit. I haven’t even looked up his salary, but I can’t believe another MLB team would want him bad enough to beat it. Who needs an old 1B with back problems? (Then again, if Scott Boras is his agent I’m sure he’ll find one.)
It’s difficult to imagine that any GM would offer a 33 yr old 1st baseman who got an epidural for a bad back – in the final month of the season – a $16M guarantee next season!
He’s on the books for the Yankees in 2023 – they’ll just have to hope for the best, both this year and next year.
A bad back took Donny Baseball from immortal status to average…….backs tend to only get worse with age not better……interesting to see both what Rizzo and his agent think, and what the Yankees might counter with.
He’ll opt out if he is inclined to make money. He’s got a 132 wRC+ and has been worth 2.5 fWAR.. Since the Yankees offered him $32M coming off a season where he was worth 2.1 fWAR with a 113 wRC+ we have to assume he can make at least that much again.
I can see the Yankees offering Rizzo an additional year with a similar salary and opt-out structure, except with a provision that if he spends more than 30 days on the IL or has under 500 PA then 2024 becomes a team option with a very minimal buy out. For reference, as of today Rizzo has 489 PA.
MuleorAstroMule;
Fair enough.
But name us a team that needs a LH hitting 1B / DH and is willing to beat $16m for 2023 knowing the player has back problems.
I could see a playoff contending team taking him on sometime during the 2023 season if they need an LH bat, he’s healthy and having a good year. They’d just have to pay a pro-rated part of his salary. But I can’t think of an MLB team with what we know today that would be interested. Furthermore, we don’t know what players might become available for trades that would be more attractive than him.
MuleorAstroMule;;
P.S. The Yankees always overpay players to sign with them.
Free agency is not some sort of arbitration. Teams offer what they elect to offer for whatever reason.
The Rays might be looking for a LH 1B /DH type if they can get someone to take Ji-Man Choi. But Choi is being paid $3.2m in 2022 as the 32 year-old heads to arbitration for 2023. The Rays are not shelling out a minimum of $16m.
Thanks for explaining to me what free agency is. After being on this site for 15 years I’ve always wondered.
Free agents go to the highest bidder. If you think no one is willing to offer more than one year for the 2nd best 1B on the market you’re going to be sadly disappointed. Especially one year after that same player got a two year deal for worse production. And remember, all it takes is one of thirty teams.
I get Yankee fans want to pretend the back issues Rizzo has been dealing with for five years are all-of-a-sudden going to give them a discount but it’s not happening.
As for the G-Man, Rizzo has been more valuable over then last season than Ji has over the last three. So it’s not really an apt comparison. Of course a role player will make much less.
Bring out the Condor.
Long past time for the Yankees to get rid of brian cashman.
Cashman should of been long ago.
Let’s be honest, Hal Steinbrenner is a clown too.
True but the Steinbrenners get some leeway for being the 1st Latino owners in MLB history.
Lmao
Salvadoran- the white didn’t get mixed in at all until beginning in the 1990s. They have at times faked German-Irish because it made it easier to break down barriers. George didn’t look 100% Latino and speak perfect Spanish out of coincidence.
I think I’m muted by “Salvadoran” bc I don’t see his reply….as someone who works in real estate I’m always happy to occupy more property, especially the free kind in people’s heads 🙂
I haven’t muted you or anyone else 🙂 PS George’s birth name was Jorge if you’re interested in knowing.
Lol I thought you were addressing an account on here
For Yankee fans: any word on how likely it is that Rizzo opts out of his contract next year? Obviously the injury issue complicates (or maybe un-complicates) matters a bit, but has it been anything of a foregone conclusion that he’d either opt-out or opt-in next year?
No word either way.
I think it’s a coin flip with him having back issues. They don’t tend to go away but if he comes back and plays well he could opt out.
I hope he opts in. There isn’t much out there in the first baseman FA market but I don’t want him around long term.
Cubs fan here, so I know how nagging those back issues can be for Rizzo. Gotta think this recent flare up means he’s more likely to opt-in. Seems like a smart choice, and you’re right – the 1B market otherwise this winter looks very bleak. Even with the back issues, any team would take Rizzo before just about anyone else available.
And of course, even if the Yankees tended to actually promote their farm players, there is nobody on any level capable of taking over the 1st base job…..the Yankees need to stop drafting SS only and start to think of the corner infield positions more.
If Rizzo does opt out, don’t know what the Yankees will do…..please don’t. tell us fans that DJ is the backup plan at 1st.
Yankees gonna Met’
Goodbye Ryan Weber yet again……
I saw him when Scranton came to Saint Paul. He was awesome with kids. I approve this man for majors work because he gets it with kids. Players should be open to and include signing autographs and talking to kids. Without them the next generation won’t watch the game no matter how long games are.
I Need An Honest Answer,About Anthony Rizzo Being Placed On The IL,Will This Be Retroactive To August 31?
Of course it will be.
I Am Not Sure
What a relief rizzo avoid the DL.
I think this might be the first time Cashman made a move that I suggested beforehand on this site.
Brace yourselves. ; )
Did you see the reported statements from Randy Levine to the NYPost regarding Aaron Judge? This is precisely in line with Hal’s counterintuitive request to reduce the CBT to $185M and cap it… Yet he hemorrhages money investing into soccer- huh.
twitter.com/MichiganYankees/status/156724723032677…
Sound like the old “reality potion” business when they were negotiating with Jeter.
Rizzo is NOT having a strong season.
His OPS is .832 and his ops+ is 135. That is a strong season. Still don’t know why Waldichuk and Wesneski were traded. Bad trades if you ask me.
BMI = 30. Obese. And a bad back? Go figure.
Does he play a contact sport? Nope.
Then why does he have to be to big?
So he can hit homers and get overpaid.
And fall apart at age 33. Well done.
True, Anthony Rizzo is a fat disgusting individual- no way around that.
You’re a genuine specimen of a man impervious to facts. This BMI business you keep promoting is nonsense, and I showed you why that’s so, just as I’ve shown you other facts with supporting evidence in the past that you blithely ignored.
I’ll share again the refutation of the BMI nonsense, not for your sake, but for anyone else who wants to read a cogent explanation of the fallacies behind the BMI theory.
npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10626843…
Being overweight because of extra muscle is better than being overweight because of being fat, but it’s still bad. Not only that, but Anthony Rizzo is a fat disgusting individual, even if he’s not obese 100% in the way you’re thinking.
Imagine being paid millions of dollars to play a sport yet not even having the self-discipline to have a good body composition. That’s Anthony Rizzo- he’s disgusting.
I’m not thinking he’s obese at all, or fat, for that matter. And, for the record, I’m not disgusted by fat people.
Fat professional athletes in particular are disgusting, not necessarily all fat people in general.
BMI? What is this, 1963? There’s old, there’s dirt, and then there’s you.
Okay fine but if you measure the curves and depressions of Rizzo’s skull they reveal that he’s a degenerate criminal.
If there is a correlation between BMI and injuries, then there is something there. It may not explain the injuries, but it can be used to predict them. Are there better indicators? Of course. But I’m not privy to enough information to unearth them so I use a simple available “statistic”, BMI. Maybe it’s no more telling than what color socks a person wears. But it’s telling something. So I’m going to grind it into the ground until the whole Yankees team is on the IL. The NY on the cap just means “not yet”. They’re all going down.
The Yankees are the Gas House Gorillas.
The Yankees are 14th in IL days this year with 1,187. It doesn’t seem like this BMI issue is affecting much.
BMI? That’s a first here.
Just because Derek Jeter considers Brian Cashman to be his second father, it doesn’t mean the Yankees should keep him no matter what. 1 World Series title and the past 22 years and none in 13 years and counting.
It is amusing when the four Yankee championships of the first six years of the Wild Card era are ignored.
There’s friction between Jeter and Cashman.
“Just because Derek Jeter considers Brian Cashman to be his second father”
I don’t know where you got that from, but it’s clear from the way Jeter speaks of Cashman in “The Captain” that he’s no second father to him. He doesn’t even speak his first name.
Every day I can learn something new. Today I watched the last episode of “The Captain” and learned that, at his HOF induction ceremony, Jeter asked Cashman if he’d take a walk with him, and on that walk Jeter acknowledged the bad feelings between them, but he said he’d come to understand more about Cashman’s point of view, and they buried the hatchet. So, no matter what sportswriters might say or talking heads on TV, that’s the story from the horse’s mouth.
BTW, profile_screen_name, I think you confused whose second father belonged to whom. Jeter said Joe Torre was like a second father to him, and Brian Cashman said George Steinbrenner was like a second father to him.
He might not hit much, but Condor plays better defense than anyone.
This is what happens when you rely on veterans over the hump and trade away all depth in the minors. More then half the players we traded at the deadline are in the majors with their current team. Yanks again refuse to give their homegrown guys a chance
No Greg Bird in Scranton?
I’m not a doctor nor play one on TV or on discussion threads, but looking up the side effects of an epidural injection, I have to think Rizzo’s doctor may have effed him up by treating the symptom of back pain instead of the cause. Some form of physical therapy would seem to have been safer.
medicalnewstoday.com/articles/epidural-side-effect…
It’s not the back pain that has him on the IL, it’s the headaches, which probably were caused by the injection.
The doctor gave him an epidural not to fix things but so he could play through the pain. Rizzo’s not fixing a wonky back by violently swinging a bat a few dozen times a day or beating it down the line. It’s no different than when players get cortizone shots. They don’t heal anything. They’re just steroids to keep them going.
I’m sure in the offseaon he’ll be doing yoga, etc. but Rizzo’s had back problems since 2018 so it’s not like this is new territory for him.
That’s why I said the doctor was “treating the symptom of back pain instead of the cause.” Unfortunately, the treatment appears to have created another problem.
Yes but you said they “effed up.,” when in fact this is standard procedure. An epidural was Rizzo’s only hope of playing through the pain. So you can complain that it was the wrong move but when there aren’t any other moves to make it’s an odd complaint.
I don’t accept the idea that playing through the pain was the only or the best option. When there’s pain, the body is telling you something is wrong. Ignoring or masking that pain does nothing to heal the injury; to the contrary, it most likely leads to aggravating the injury. Any doctor must know this. Therefore, it’s bad practice to simply mask pain instead of addressing the cause.
In Rizzo’s case, the cause is very possibly a misalignment of spinal disks; but it could be something else, even a nutritional imbalance that causes tension and inflammation in his muscle tissue.
There are ways to address those things to alleviate them and promote healing. But simply masking the pain isn’t one of them.
Isn’t this the guy Rangers29 (I think that’s his name) has said would breakout every spring training since 2019?