Yankees finally place Anthony Rizzo on IL, call up mysterious two-way slugger

Wait, Yankees slugger Anthony Rizzo’s injured?! Who saw this coming? When he had an epidural in his back last week and couldn’t shake the headaches, it seemed so obvious he’d be back within 10 days!

And when he took six full days off, it seemed like an awesome decision to leave a roster spot unused for those six critical days instead of taking advantage of the IL!

On Tuesday, the Yankees finally responded to these sarcastic pleas and placed Rizzo on the IL before a game that never got played, washed away and turned into a single-admission doubleheader on Wednesday against Minnesota.

In Rizzo’s place (for, at least, a couple days) is first baseman Ronald Guzman, known mainly for drilling three homers at Yankee Stadium as a visiting Rangers rookie back in 2018, as well as attempting to become a pitcher this season at Triple-A.

Guzman’s an unconventional addition, but he’s been mashing the ball this season in the minors, and has a previous track record of big-league pop. At the very least, he makes more sense at first than Marwin Gonzalez.

Yankees promote Ronald Guzman, Anthony Rizzo to IL

Sorry, but according to Andy Martino, Ronald Guzman is now the AL MVP front-runner for second place ahead of Aaron Judge. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.

Guzman has raked at Triple-A, posting an .823 OPS with 12 bombs and a .260 average/.357 OBP. He hit .367 in July, .327 in August, and .357 thus far in Sept. Maybe the Yankees catch lightning in a bottle?

Regardless, they probably should’ve just IL’d Rizzo several days ago when his back issues got serious. You can only backdate an IL stint three days, so Rizzo will still miss a full week of action, instead of potentially less if they’d attended to this sooner.

This issue is also even more concerning than initially thought. Rizzo is reportedly feeling better after the epidural, but the resulting headaches have forced him to bed (per doctor’s orders).

Add in the likelihood that DJ LeMahieu will be sitting Wednesday while managing his troublesome toe (which Aaron Boone alluded to in Tuesday’s faux-postgame), and the Yankees will be hurting for offense for several more days.

Three of those days feature critical home games against the Rays. Show us something, Ronald/Oswald/Oswaldo/Anthony Volpe.

Just kidding. They would never. Unless…?

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