Nobody beats the Riz! Anthony Rizzo will remain a Yankee for at least the next two years.This is great news for Yankees fans. The Yankees crew over here at Bleacher Brawls is thrilled to have one of our favorites back.
There are a lot of benefits to the return of Anthony Rizzo. Yankees fans are well aware of his leadership ability, he is vital to the clubhouse. In 2022, Aaron Judge was the Don, the Tony Soprano of the Yankee family, Anthony Rizzo was the Consigliere, the Silvio Dante of the Yankees family.
Anthony Rizzo is probably going to benefit from the banning of the shift more than anyone else on the Yankees. He’s a pretty good contact hitter that doesn’t strike out a lot. Riz puts the ball in play, we’re likely to see his batting average jump with one less fielder on the right side of the field.
Most importantly, this is a really good sign that Aaron Judge may be returning to the Yankees. Riz and Judge are close, I don’t really see why Anthony Rizzo would want to resign with the Yankees if Aaron Judge was not returning. The Yankees aren’t really contenders without Aaron Judge. For Rizzo to resign so quickly, you would think he has some insider knowledge on how those negotiations are going between Aaron Judge and the Yankees.
All in all, a good move for the Yankees.
We should expect to see some fallout as a result of Anthony Rizzo resigning with the Yankees. There is a logjam in the infield and someone needs to be moved. I think it is likely going to be Gleyber Torres. The Gleyber Torres of 2019 is long gone. The Gleyber Torres of 2019 was an aberration, a ghost, a one time occurrence we’ll never see again.
I held out hope for Gleyber, I really, really thought he could live up to his potential. He even had a few clutch hits early in the season for the Yankees, Yankee fans thought 2019 Gleyber had returned. But that’s not what happened. Gleyber faltered for the rest of the season, never living up to what we expected of him.
I would prefer to keep Gleyber over Josh Donaldson. I would slide DJ LeMahieu over to 3rd base, keep Gleyber at second and ship Donaldson to anyone that would take him for anything they were willing to offer. Any takers?……….
Clearly no one is taking Josh Donaldson off the Yankees hands, that means Gleyber is the odd man out. Let’s hope that incompetent General Manager of ours can get a halfway decent pitcher in return.
Speaking of pitching, do the Yankees make a move for Carlos Rodon or do they resign Jameson Taillon? Carlos Rodon clearly has more upside but we know that Jameson Taillon can handle the pressure of pitching in New York as well as handle the hitter friendly confines of Yankee Stadium. Maybe the solution is to sign both pitchers and try to trade Frankie Montas?
We got a long offseason ahead of us, let the speculation begin!