Anthony Rizzo suffered a concussion on May 28th. He immediately underwent the standard concussion testing that all MLB players who get hit in the head get. If you would like to hear more about concussions, I strongly recommend this podcast episode that I recorded with Dr. Debra Fagan, my mother, about Rizzo’s concussion. It’s one of the best things that the Bronx Beat Podcast has put out in a long time.
I feel bad for Rizzo. Thankfully, he hasn’t had any of the real serious life-changing concussion symptoms, like persistent headaches or blurred vision. His symptoms have manifested in delayed reaction speeds and maybe some minor memory problems. In a normal job, he would probably be fine slowly healing on his own. But he can’t hit a fastball when he’s a little bit slow.
I strongly recommend watching Rizzo’s entire press conference. Rizzo is honest and forthcoming. Every time I see Rizzo speak for more than a few sentences after a game, I’m impressed as hell with him.
I want to be as sensitive as I can about Rizzo’s injury. Brain injuries are scary. But I think we need to ask an obvious and damning questing to the Yankees:
How the hell did it take two months to figure this out?
Rizzo gets hit in the head. He passes a few immediate concussion tests. His neck hurts a little, so they treat the neck for a few days. Rizzo flies out with the team, takes three days off and the neck pain goes away. He then returns to play, but something is off. Over the next two weeks, Rizzo hits .074/.174/.098 (!), one of the worst stretches in his career. Why didn’t the Yankees reevaluate Rizzo then? Why not at the All Star Break, when everyone in baseball is talking about how Rizzo hasn’t hit a home run since May 28th?
All during this time, the Yankees are losing games because they are playing the worst hitter in baseball. Batting third. How many extra games behind are the Yankees right now because of their stupid decision? The worst part is that it seems like Rizzo could have gotten treatment and been back at full capacity weeks ago had they realized that something was wrong after two weeks. Instead, they get two months of the worst first baseman in baseball and also have to wait for his brain to heal before getting Rizzo back.
Overall, it’s a cataclysmic error. And it’s one that the Yankees make all the time. They let Trevino play through a major wrist injury for months while hitting .150. They let Frankie Montas play through a shoulder injury and do nothing about it until it became worse in the Spring, resulting in near-season ending surgery. They let Giancarlo Stanton play through multiple injuries through his tenure. So far, Judge has been great in his return, but now I’m watching for him to bat .150 over the next month as the pain in his toe gets worse. I’m sure there’s more examples that we don’t know about.
I don’t know enough about the inner working of the Yankee clubhouse to say as to what is going on, but it sure seems like the Yankees don’t take protracted slumps as a sign of injury, even when they have a strong suspicion of an injury having occurred. They don’t believe in benching or ILing a player who is playing uncharacteristically badly, or even just investigating further. They just keep calm and carry on, encouraging players to suck it up and play.
Injuries have a huge random element to them, especially on an older team like the Yankees. I wouldn’t attribute any one season with a lot of injuries to a problem with the organization. But when you start to observe a pattern, something is wrong. The Yankees suffered a devasting set of injuries in the 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023 seasons. That’s not just random variation. It’s a pattern caused by something. Rizzo’s injury is just a canary in the coal mine.
In a season of infuriating moments, this might rank near the top.