Anthony Rizzo's Struggles With New York Yankees Come Into Focus After Injury Diagnosis

Aaron Boone said the team believes Rizzo suffered a concussion against the Astros in late May, and his production has never been the same since.

The New York Yankees placed first baseman Anthony Rizzo on the injured list with post-concussion syndrome, the team announced Thursday.

Manager Aaron Boone traced the likely concussion back to a May 28 home game against the San Diego Padres, when right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. hit Rizzo in the head with his hip on a pickoff attempt. Rizzo left that game and missed the next three games, but returned and played in 46 of New York's next 49 games.

Rizzo's numbers went into a free fall over the following two months, as the former three-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glove winner, one-time Silver Slugger and one-time World Series champion is currently hitting .244 with a .706 OPS on the season. The 33-year-old is on pace for his worst year since his debut campaign with the Padres in 2011.

"Just been complaining the last couple days of some fogginess, and so we ran him through a battery of tests, neurological stuff," Boone said. "Kinda showed up and came back as some cognitive impairment. Yeah, so he's gonna be shut down right now and hopefully, with the treatment he's getting, we'll start to see some improvements."

Boone said Rizzo passed through MLB concussion protocols at the time of the injury, but started to feel notably lax and foggy in recent days.

As pointed out by Codify on Twitter, though, it's pretty easy to line up Rizzo's drop in production with the collision.

In the 53 games before the incident, Rizzo was hitting .304 with 11 home runs, eight doubles, 32 RBI and an .880 OPS. In the 46 games since, Rizzo hit .172 with one home run, nine RBI and a .496 OPS.

This is legitimately crazy.

Rizzo this year before this happened:
53 games, 11 HR, .304/.376/.505 (.880 OPS)

Rizzo this year after this happened:
46 games, 1 HR, .172/.271/.225 (.496 OPS) https://t.co/l1jbLKPliG

— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) August 3, 2023

Just last season, the veteran hit 32 home runs with 75 RBI and an .817 OPS for the Yankees.

Rizzo's bat may have been a black hole since the start of June, but his absence is just the latest that will disrupt the Yankees' highly-paid meat of the lineup. Outfielder Aaron Judge just returned from a toe injury that cost him nearly two months, while designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton missed nearly 44 games with a hamstring injury.

The Yankees went 20-26 during Rizzo's post-concussion skid, and they now sit in last place in the AL East with a 56-52 record. New York is 3.0 games back of the third and final AL Wild Card spot, although the rival Boston Red Sox are 1.0 games ahead of them.

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