Back in February, veteran first baseman and free agent Anthony Rizzo expressed a desire to continue his playing career. However, he also expressed frustration over the limited market for his services and the services of other players like him. Rizzo suggested that teams didn’t “want to pay a few million dollars for veterans,” and said he wasn’t interested in signing a contract that would hurt the market for future players in a similar position. Speaking to Ken Rosenthal and Brendan Kuty of The Athletic, he bemoaned “the fact that teams want you to play for basically league minimum. I’m like, you guys are crazy. You’re almost trying to ruin the market for the next guy.”
Rizzo was not credibly connected to any interested teams over the winter. Yet, his comments to Rosenthal and Kuty implied that he had received some interest, just not to the degree he would have liked. That may very well be true, as Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported on Thursday that the Padres pursued Rizzo during the offseason. Specifically, he notes that San Diego was interested in Rizzo before pivoting to Jason Heyward instead.
Heyward and Rizzo don’t fill the same niche – Heyward is an outfielder, while Rizzo plays first base – but they are both 35-year-old left-handed batters. Still, the fact that the Padres signed Heyward wouldn’t have precluded them from signing Rizzo from a positional fit/roster-building standpoint. After all, they still needed a DH, and they ultimately signed another lefty batter, Gavin Sheets, to fill that role. What’s more, Sheets actually has a higher guaranteed salary than Heyward, even though he initially joined the team on a minor league deal; Sheets is making $1.6MM this season, while Heyward is guaranteed $1MM. If the Padres were hoping to sign him in that same price range, Rizzo’s February comments make clear he wouldn’t have accepted. And regardless, if San Diego ever made Rizzo a formal, guaranteed offer, it clearly wasn’t the kind of offer the veteran first baseman was seeking.
San Diego would have made an interesting fit for Rizzo. While he is best remembered for his years with the Cubs, he made his MLB debut for the Padres in 2011. Twelve years later, it was in a game against the Padres that Rizzo suffered the injury that led to his post-concussion syndrome diagnosis. Entering that game, Rizzo had an .823 OPS and a 131 wRC+ through his first 231 appearances with the Yankees. From that day onward, he produced a .590 OPS and a 70 wRC+ in 139 contests. So, for both of those reasons, it would have made for a nice story if Rizzo had bounced back with the Padres.
As time goes by, it becomes less and less likely that Rizzo will return to the majors, especially if he remains adamant about signing for much more than the league minimum salary. Theoretically, the Red Sox are a good fit for Rizzo after Triston Casas ruptured his left patellar tendon, likely ending his season. They have already made it clear that neither of their top prospects, Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer, will move to first base, nor will Rafael Devers. That leaves Romy Gonzalez (career .672 OPS, 82 wRC+) as the primary first baseman, and he, too, has been dealing with a minor back injury after a collision at first base on Wednesday. Ultimately, the righty-batting Gonzalez might be a fine fill-in against left-handed pitching, but the Red Sox could use another lefty bat with Casas and Masataka Yoshida both on the IL. Nevertheless, Heyman notes that a reunion between Rizzo and the Red Sox – it was Boston who drafted him before trading him to San Diego – does not “seem to be in play.”
Some contending clubs that have struggled against right-handed pitching and could make room for Rizzo in a part-time role at first base or DH include the Rangers, Blue Jays, and Royals. However, there is no reporting to suggest that Rizzo has received interest from any teams since the start of the season.
Really not sure why the Giants haven’t signed him. He can’t be worse than Wade at this point
I’m sure he can. Rizzo isn’t part of any solution to their roster.
Because he would Want way more money than he’s actually worth
Because Rizzo sucks and he wants more $$ than he’s worth.
The reds needs to sign some more2 free agent bolster there team
But if nobody’s willing to offer, say, $2.5 or $3 million, him not signing for less isn’t going to make teams offer the next equivalent player $2.5 or $3 million.
“Isn’t going to make”..Celebrity athletes are very much like Hollywood celebrities in general; always trying to frame getting their own multi million dollar bags of loot as being about “the next guy”.
Players should get whatever money they can, but don’t tell me your main consideration in life is “the next guy”. And personally, I’ve always been a rather big fan of Anthony Rizzo.
Well when you are as rich as JD Martinez or Anthony Rizzo, or a movie star, you dont have to work for less than you want. You can just retire and drink margaritas on the beach.
I will say the way he is framing it as “not wanting to hurt other FA” is quite funny though.
Right ! Like there aren’t several vets making 2-3 mil this season lol
Of course there are, but the point is that there’s nothing Rizzo can do or say to bring his market value to that or any particular level.
He is.
Make a few million—> good
Making nothing—> not so good
Is he really making nothing though? There could be a scenario where he’s collecting on insurance he took out on expected future earnings. If the payout is more than what teams are willing to pay, it would make sense to reject the low offers for the payout.
He got a 6 million dollars buyout from nyy
People take out insurance on future earnings. Sports players do this because it protects their future earnings if they lose out for whatever unknown. In Rizzo’s case, the concussion derailing his season and tanking his market value.
Athletes do not just insure future earnings as simply as you had put. Younger athletes typically insure against injury or insure specific body parts. Due to the size of their contracts they typically are not all inclusive disability coverage.
For veteran MLB players insurance is acquiring multi year deals or buyouts such as the $6M Rizzo got from NYY.
Teams sometimes get coverage for contracts. Those plans cost a ton of $ and sometimes teams can not even find anyone to over any coverage(deGrom).
Is that 100% true though? It’s not an unheard of idea to hedge future earnings. And to be clear, I’m not talking about from MLB or teams. I’m talking about from another institution.
So your saying they take policies against a body part. Which I get.
Yes Olympians and college athletes do all the time.
A pro athlete like Rizzo though is not getting a policy in future earnings. The cost would be 50% of what he’d likely make, if he could even find one. You have to remember insurance companies are profitable, that’s why some still exist. To insure future earnings of pro athletes broadly as you proposed would crush insurance companies.
You’re last ops+ was 82 and you want how much?
The article actually addresses this.
He was hitting well prior to the concussion that the Yankees tried to play him through.
While I agree his overall numbers were not great, if the Yankees didn’t try to play him through the concussion he would have had a 123 OPS+
The 2 year concussion?
He’s in denial. A lot of guys refuse to accept reality. He’s cooked. I am sure relative to a normal human he can still play elite baseball, offensively and defensively, but at the major league level I think he’s physically done aside from the basic skillset still being there.
A lot of guys who are at his point- got paid well, were prolific, have diminished by like 75% but still want to play, but they’re basically not worth the roster spot given how expensive they’d be even at a heavy discount- struggle to accept that there’s a difference between being a retired professional athlete and being geriatric.
He’s still above-average defensively and that’s why he has been a positive WAR player the past 2 years, despite his lack of offense. He’s still better than anyone the Red Sox have internally. If I were them, I’d offer him $1M.
I do not think he would take that.
I am guessing he wants Goldschmidt level money- $10M to $13M on a one year deal.
I suppose at this point the Red Sox or someone like that could offer him a pro-rated version of that, so like $8.35M for the rest of the year or something, maybe even just $7.5M- but I think even that would be an overpay at this point. And I do not think he’d settle for less than that level of pro-rated salary.
Dude would be lucky to get anywhere close to sniffing over $1MM for ROS, anything approaching $2MM could be justifiable by a contender… but still an overpay.
Well, F that then. lol.
He thinks he is of Goldschmidt caliber but he isn’t. He isn’t Freddy, Paul or Olsen. Rizzo was a cool guy to watch but he’s acting the devers right now. Maybe he will make the millennial hall of fame.
THE CINCINNATI REDS NEEDS ANTHONY RIZZO, AND ACE PITCHER, A GOOD OUTFIELDER
So you think he’s talking about hurting the next guy at 10 million for a 35 year old? That’s hilarious. He’s just saying he’s not a league minimum player. Debate that if you want but he ain’t looking for no 10-13 lol. He would take 1/4 that.
Josh Watson: Why are you SHOUTING? Are you demented?
He said he wanted 3 mil, but teams were offering league minimum
He could have been walking through a construction zone, Bluey!
No he’s not, his D has sucked the last few years, he can’t move and maybe u didn’t read the article but he’s not going to sign for $1m….. supposedly doesn’t want to hurt the next vet looking for a contract, what a joke.
I read the article. It said he wouldn’t have taken $1M for a full season.
According to B-R, he hasn’t had a positive dWar since 2017.
Agree on all that – except the $1m part. I’d offer a base of $4-6, pro rated with incentives to get higher.
Then you’d be fired as a GM. His numbers don’t justify that.
He doesnt want to take 1M.
Teams may not be interested in a 35 year old player who hasn’t hit since a concussion. And if they are, they’re going to mitigate risk.
Gee guess those two bad seasons you just produced have nothing to do with these “crazy” teams behavior…..
HIs number have been decling for a while.
the easiest way to make more money is to be worth more money.
So many good players in the minor leagues, but if you are still one of the best, you should have a spot on a roster if you want to keep playing.
But, there should be a squeeze on your pay because you are taking away the opportunity of a young player who has the same potential as you do.
I think all veterans over a certain age should make a comparable base with performance kickers. Rizzo isnt ruining anybody’s market. There are many players waiting for that day to be selected for that 750K dollar pay day.
That’s a wild take. So have a an arbitrary age limit so teams can sign 27-28 y.o. free agents only up until said limit? Let the current market system do it’s thing. The kids will have their day when their time comes.
Rizzo is only 35, he could have another good season in him, but he has had issues at the plate for 700AB across two seasons.
Goldschmidt is 38, he slumped for two seasons and is off to a great start with the Yanks, Rizzo could put it together again. But Goldschmidt took a one year, 12.5M deal, he took a pay cut, he just wanted to get on the field.
Im not sure what kind of offers Rizzo was getting but he deserves a pay cut.
The idea of a standardized contracts for players that continue to play into old age was mostly because of Max Scherzer, a forty four year old pitcher who cost his team 15M this season. Its a concept really, but if you are playing in your forties,.it likely means that you have had a great career, have made a lot of money, and are continuing to play for love of the game and legacy, money shouldn’t be an issue.
The FA market tends to do a good job at assessing each situation but players are sigining long term deals that pay them exorbinent salaries into their late thirties and early forties and thats a disaster.
It’s called free agency for a reason. If you have standardized contracts, what’s to prevent the Dodgers or Yankees or other big market teams from signing all of these qualified older players where they’re still over-performing their peers? It doesn’t advocate for parity nor solve any problems beside depressing overall MLB salaries and put more money into owners’ pockets by mitigating their risks for older players.
YBC – that makes sense, those are good points.
In the FA market, contracts are already somewhat standaridized by past performance, player age, player position, etc…, and teams have the liberty to overpay players as they wish depending on their assessment of a player’s ability and their own positional demand.
I like the MLB system as it sits, maybe minor league players should get a raise in pay. I like team control of young players. I like FA as it is. I think there should be a cap on foreign players per team similar to Nippon.
There should be some sort of cap on the long term deals too. If it comtinues, league wide there will be players in their late thirties and early forties who are playing bad baseball and getting paid big bucks for it.
There arent too many players who can hold on into their late thirties, and its great to see those veterans stick around if they can still play, but they shouldn’t have their pay comped by a guy who signed a deal ten years ago and is getting paid way to much for his age 38 season.
I didn’t know someone who has made $127 million dollars could be such an A-HOLE
“I didn’t know”..Over-celebrated athletes are very much like out of touch with reality Hollywood celebrities.
Now you know.
lol glad you did the research. He has never been worth $127 million. Cubs won a WS the same way as the Braves in 21. Luck and hustle. Difference is ATL held onto that looking to trap magic in a bottle twice. Cubs sold the over hyped people and made money. They didn’t build a team but I bet they made money.
How did the Cubs win by luck, best record in mlb, oh because they were lucky it rained, cmon man
The Cubs must have been the healthiest WS champions in history in the 2016 season. I recall their starting pitchers missed a total of 10-14 days across the entire staff. Only Schwarber was injured and he came back. Kudos to the training staff that season. I’d call that very lucky.
Actually 135. He got a 6mm buyout at the end of last yr.
I will happily play for the Padres for 1 mil. I absolutely adore Anthony Rizzo, but it’s a shame that playing baseball for a million dollars a year isn’t acceptable anymore.
Most of these players over value their worth, which is ok in your prime but as skills go down pay should too.
Figure your career earnings and ask yourself would you work for 3/4 of 1% of that. And be away from your family for 6 months. Now you know how athletes determine their worth. We can debate his worth all we want he don’t have his bank accounts.
Rizzo has his 10+years of service and out of his 130+M career earnings, probably has a nice nest egg of at least 50M. What’s all that hassle for just league minimum? If it’s 3 or 4M maybe after all the expenses and taxes it’s 1-2M. Anything less for him might just be pointless. At a 1M, he’s seeing maybe $400K.
I dont know what other expenses you mention. THe players also gets licensing money on top of salary. I think they also get extra pension money.its not nothing. If the team he is on gets to the post season, thats extra money. The clock is ticking for him.
Yeah- I know a lot of people who reach a point in their careers where they have plenty left in the tank to keep working, but they’ve made enough money, have enough of a nest egg at that point and their typical salaries were or are high enough for long enough that anything too far below their ‘quote’ isn’t enough to compel them to make the effort.
Doesn’t matter if you were making $20M a season or $250k a year- once offers drop below a certain threshold it just isn’t worth your time and you won’t be motivated to care enough.
Robw — other expenses: agent’s fee, lawyer, accountants, trainer. Players are like an individual business so there are expenses to operate as a professional athlete. It’s a nonzero sum is taken from his money after taxes.
Mike Imanaga II: Of course you would, but like the rest of us, you’re only a MLB player in your dreams.
Why don’t you go take a nap and sign that contract?
Anthony, buddy, you’re a 35 year old 1B who has a sub-.700 OPS over his last 200ish MLB games.
This is a YOU problem.
Brandon Belt went unsigned last year. How does Rizzo deserve a roster spot?
Yeah, that was MUCH more egregious.
There are a lot of unemployed first basemen with similar recent stats.
For the 2010 season, 39 year old Jim Thome who was coming off a season where he’d only been able to play in 104 games and amassed just 1,4WAR, but wanting to continue playing, took a $1,500,000 contract with the Twins. Turned out to be a phenomenal deal. He got in 108 games, 3.6WAR, a slash line of .283/.412/.627 with as OPS+ of 182. You want to keep playing, you make the deal you can–and I don’t think anyone complained Thome was somehow bad for the game, or any player complained he was pulling down their salary. Rizzo is 35, he could prove himself on the field. But he’s not entitled to a salary beyond his recent production. If he doesn’t want to…that’s his choice
“You’re trying to ruin the market for the next guy”. The next guy being a 35 year old first baseman that had a .637 ops.
How dare they try to crater the market of has beens!!!??
Yeah, I’m not really sure what market he thinks is going to get ruined. There are currently only 2 active players who have put up an OPS+ of 90 or lower in their age-33 or older season with at least 500 plate appearances. It’s Martin Maldonado, and Marcus Semien. If he’s talking about older vets in general, good ones are still getting paid pretty well. Carlos Santana, Justin Turner, and Andrew McCutchen are all getting fair contracts. It’s not as if Rizzo is getting shafted either. I don’t see Jose Abreu signing for $5+ million. Yuli Gurriel is having to settle for minor league contracts and sparse playing time. Jason Heyward only is getting paid $1 mil.
It must be a tough pill to swallow after such an accomplished career. The free agent market at 1B was so deep.. but guys like Goldschmidt, Santana, and Josh Bell did fine.
It seems like Rizzo just wasn’t high on any team’s wishlist. I’m not sure sitting out is going to help either.
Josh Bell is a payroll bandit. He stinks. Goldschmidt I doubt there was any major market for him at age 37. Yankees way overpaid. Its a Yankee tax. They took a one yr chance on him.
Jon Heyman behind a paywall. Good golly!
You gotta pay to read about what the Boras mouthpiece has to say lol
“Some of us are told at 18, some of us are told at 40, but we’re all told.”
Rizzo has nothing to be ashamed of in retiring. 3x allstar, multiple Gold Gloves, a Sliver Slugger, over 300 career home runs, a World Series ring, and over $125 million in career earnings. That’s better than what 95% of MLB players typically do.
Agreed. I don’t think he’s done and will play again. Sitting out a year may not be a bad thing to continue recovery from his concussion.
Seems pretty likely that Rizzo will never appear in a Major League Game again.
If he doesn’t play this year the offers aren’t gonna be better next winter! Just go home and, cuddle with your kids and count your money!
It may be too late for him to sit out a year and recover from his concussion. Head injuries tend not to be a simple fix. He’ll be 36 by the end of this season, and with how poorly he performed in 2024, I doubt any team is going to come knocking with a contract for 2026.
I have a very different take than the vast majority. Maybe. Just maybe, Anthony Rizzo is displaying a bit of empathy into his decision-making. Maybe empathy doesn’t have to be a weakness, but rather a quality of strength. Maybe he wants to make the kind of money that he feels he deserves and feels veterans have been served a somewhat tepid or even collusive response in recent memory. And maybe Rizzo is willing to stand up for that, even if it means he will no longer be a professional baseball player. Personally, I commend him. I doubt he is anything more than a platoon specialist at this stage in his career due to age and injuries, but frankly maybe he’s worth a gamble of a couple million if his post concussion symptoms are actually behind him. Anyway, I’m a fan of Rizzo and I admire the fact that he will go out the way he feels he deserves and future others in his situation also deserve. I don’t feel I have the right to tear him down for that.
Yeah but he can do all that without saying MLB has a vendetta against 35 year old bad first basemen.
Careful now, you are bringing reason and logic into this and most of the other comments lack that quality.
We all “have the right” to say or believe whatever we want. Even about washed up millionaire baseball players.
Knowing who caused that concussion, something tells me it was really the money Rizzo turned down Padres’ offer for.
Shades of Shedeur Sanders. If you want to retire, fine. But the dude hasn’t hit a lick since his concussion. If you want to continue your career, then you take a ‘prove-it’ contract.
Take a 1m prove it deal or you go regain your form in the Mexican Baseball League, the NPB or the KBO.
It’s funny you should mention ‘Shades of Shedeur Sanders’, which is a best selling cologne. It’s been described as ‘flaccid, yet absurd’.
Ah okay, makes sense, the wife was saying something to me about “flaccid, absurd blah blah” so it was some cologne she wants me to try?
Somewhere between cleanliness and godliness lies Compulsion, the world’s most indulgent disinfectant.
Compulsion
by Calvin Kleen
Love it , Rizzo still trying to make up what the Cubs offered , He wanted Goldschmidt money and ironically Goldschmidt ended up taking his job in NY
Rizzo will be a RedSox within the next 2 weeks. They desperatly need him
Injury prone player past 2 seasons and he hasn’t shown he’s any good anymore when he was healthy plus his defense in WS last year was a red flag. Just take league minimum if you’re lucky enough….
He’s obviously cooked. Even Seattle chose Tellez and Minnesota chose France over him. France is better than him at this point though
Play for incentives if you want to play that bad. You’ll get the market value you earn based on your play. Had Rizzo performed he would be on a roster.
He won’t get enough playing time to qualify for any incentive based contract terms.
Him signing a contract will not hurt future washed up veterans, it will hurt current young players trying to break into the league that can produce better than him for less than what he wants.
Not now yes. This was something that had to be done late-February.
Your second paragraph is nonsense as younger players cannot be compared to vets. Vets aren’t in pre-arbitration. Also never a good look when a fan wants to throw more money than necessary to the league.
I came here expecting lots of comments about spoiled, overpaid ballplayers, and I was not disappointed.
Anthony has a pretty high opinion of himself. He’s the self-appointed protector of future washed up veterans.
How about this?
Hey, Tony…..you’re actually worth what someone is willing to pay you.
It’s just the way the market works. Guys in their primes make obscene money but when you decline and produce like someone they can pull from their system who has the chance to actually ascend instead of continually descend over time they’re gonna go with youth. Rizzo is a bench bat or full in at best at this point
Future players in his position deserve to be paid for what their value is to a team, not based on what they WERE worth to a team.
Chicago still loves ya Rizz. Forever a champ and forever a Cub. Tony two chains.
I love Rizzo, great player, great person.
But let’s be honest, his best days are behind him by a long while.
His market is league minimum, his personal contract will never effect anyone else’s market, because it’s his market.
His comment is disingenuous and he would probably make more on his pension than league minimum, so it’s basically, why bother playing when I can make the same by not playing.
I think just under the surface Rizzo is still bitter the Cubs didn’t overpay him for too many years. He sees his former compadre Kris Bryant bringing in megabucks in COL even though he’s a shadow of his former self, constantly injured, unproductive, and Rizzo wants that life.
I feel awful for Rizzo. The concussion wasn’t promptly diagnosed and he played for two months before he or the Yankees knew. His skills immediately dropped off a cliff. He seems like a great guy with an excellent veteran clubhouse presence.
He was rated at a 0.2 bWAR and -0.2 fWAR – he’s a literal replacement player at this point in his career. You can get minor league AAAA guys to contribute just as much for the league minimum salary.
You play a game, and you’re not exactly in your prime anymore. Let’s consider all of the educated, hardworking Americans who have more value to society. Many of those people will never get close to earning $1 million in a year!
Rizzo! Thanks for your service! Time to kick off the those cleats and RETIRE!
Stick a fork in yourself Anthony, you’re done. Cooked. It was hard watching you the past 2 years. A definite liability in the field due to lack of mobility and greatly diminished production at the plate post concussion. Time to retire. You’ve had a fine career. Don’t further embarass yourself.