Anthony Rizzo becomes latest victim of Yankees’ injury mismanagement

In classic New York Yankees fashion, injuries have swallowed up the roster and coincided with lifeless play for over two months now, but August was the worst stretch yet. Will it get better? No. Definitively no.

Part of the reason is because now slugger Anthony Rizzo will more than likely miss time after manager Aaron Boone revealed the first baseman stayed back in California while the team departed for Tampa so he could get his back examined. Rizzo “could get an injection” and end up missing the weekend series against the Rays.

Nobody will convince any Yankees fan this wasn’t a special kind of injury mismanagement. Such shortcomings have defined this team since 2018, and a clean bill of health in the first half couldn’t prevent them dropping the ball with Giancarlo Stanton the moment play kicked off after the All-Star break.

Rizzo is the latest victim, though. He dealt with back issues earlier this season, most notably in early July and early August. The Yankees opted to keep him out for multiple games instead of just placing him on the IL. He didn’t play between July 4-8 and then again between Aug. 4-9.

Most recently, Rizzo’s back issues returned and kept him out of action on Wednesday night (he was also scratched on Aug. 26 vs Oakland). But for some reason, he was “healthy” enough to come in as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning on Wednesday against the Angels.

Yankees’ Anthony Rizzo is dealing with more back issues

That probably helped his back, right? He wasn’t healthy enough to play a full game … but he was certainly healthy enough to come in cold off the bench and likely risk further injury. Would love an explanation here that we will never get.

Instead of just laying up Rizzo for 10 days once out of THREE chances to do so this year and replacing him on the roster with one of their many top prospects, the Yankees rolled the dice when they didn’t need to and instead have watched the walls continue to cave in around them.

DJ LeMahieu has also played hurt, which has taken the wind out of the offense’s sails. Meanwhile, the team is wasting roster spots left and right with Aaron Hicks, Marwin Gonzalez, Tim Locastro, Anthony Banda and others who have entered through the revolving door of uselessness. Can’t wait to see how they expand the September roster while every other team already has it figured out.

The Yankees started 61-23 and we never thought we’d even dream of writing scathing articles for over a month straight, but they’ve done it again. Welcome back, where the content is disheartening and the discourse is toxic.

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