’s season has come to an end.
Aaron Boone said Tuesday that the Yankees are shutting the first baseman down for the rest of the year. Rizzo has been out since Aug. 1 with .
Boone said over the weekend that Rizzo hadn’t suffered a setback and that he was performing baseball activities in New York. The manager has also said that the Yankees’ place in the standings nor their commitment to playing younger players would impact what the team did with Rizzo, who had been trying to come back this year.
But Rizzo hasn’t been cleared to play yet, Boone said Tuesday before the Yankees opened a home series with the Tigers. While the manager reiterated that Rizzo has been improving, he said doctors wanted to do another checkup in a “couple weeks.” With less than a month left in the season, Rizzo and the Yankees ran out of time for a return.
“I would say everything is going well,” Boone said. “His most recent checkup was all things we’re looking for as far as his improvements and where he is.
“We were just kind of up against the clock, but he’s continuing to work out. He’s continued to make all the right cognitive improvements, but we are going to shut him down.”
Boone added that Rizzo is “in a good place” and that he and doctors have been “encouraged” by his progress. The veteran will likely cut back on some baseball activities now that there is no need to ramp up.
Rizzo went on the injured list roughly two months after a late-May collision with the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. Rizzo hurt his neck on the play, which kept him out for a few games, but initial tests cleared him of a concussion. He went on to endure the worst slump of his career, and bouts of fogginess ultimately led to him seeing a neurologist in August. It was then that he was diagnosed.
“The baseline for that was fine,” Rizzo said of the May tests when he went on the IL. “There were really no symptoms. It’s not like I had headaches after that. It’s not like I was really losing memory afterwards or anything like that. We went through those plans and I think the training staff handled it very well and respectfully.
“The neurologist said that these things cascade afterwards where you maybe don’t initially feel it. Every concussion is different, so you don’t feel the initial blow, but what happens is your brain starts cascading. I guess that’s what happened. Waking up, the way I’d describe it is you go to bed sober and you wake up a little hungover. When that happens, I’m like, ‘That doesn’t seem normal.’”
While Rizzo played with a brain injury for a prolonged period, he and the Yankees have stated that no one missed anything. Still, Boone wishes the issue had been caught sooner.
“You always have regret if something doesn’t get diagnosed right away,” the manager said. “You’d always want everything to be, but that’s not the reality sometimes. I think all the right things and right steps were happening. You can’t go back, but sure, we would have liked to have right away been able to know exactly what he was going to start dealing with.”
When asked if Boone thought anything needed to change about Major League Baseball’s concussion protocols moving forward, the skipper didn’t mention any specifics. He did, however, say that the league has made significant strides in recent years, and that there’s always room for improvement.
“You’re probably always trying to update and find higher ground with protocols in whatever it is,” Boone said. “Obviously, the head has been curious or hard to diagnose. Now, we’ve gone leaps and bounds in the last five, 10 years, and there’s probably more ground to continue to gain in how guys get diagnosed and what to look for and even individuals themselves, like what to look for after an event happens.”
Rizzo slashed .172/.271/.225 with one home run and nine RBI over 46 games following his run-in with Tatis. He said he felt “crazy” because he was seeing pitches in different locations than what video replay showed.
Now that he and the Yankees know the cause of his struggles, however, Boone is hopeful that the 34-year-old can return to form in 2024 after some additional time to heal.
“I don’t want to speak out of turn, especially when we’re talking the seriousness of head injuries and whatnot,” Boone said. “But my understanding is the last month, as he’s seen the specialists and the things they’re asking him to do, I think everyone’s been really encouraged by how he’s done and how he continues to improve.”
DOMÍNGUEZ DONS PINSTRIPES
After a thrilling debut weekend in Houston, Jasson Domínguez wasn’t sure how he was going to greet Yankee Stadium’s Bleacher Creatures. Boone told him to make sure he had something ready before playing in front of the home crowd for the first time on Tuesday.
“I know the fanbase will be very excited to see him out here in pinstripes in Yankee Stadium,” Boone said of the 20-year-old, who hit two home runs in his first three games. “Obviously, , and just excited for him to continue to grow and find his way at this level.”
Domínguez planned on having a bunch of family members at the game.
WILL WELLS CATCH COLE?
Austin Wells, another newcomer, got his first day off in the big leagues Tuesday with Ben Rortvedt catching Gerrit Cole. Rortvedt has been catching the ace, who has his eyes on the Cy Young award.
But Boone expects Wells to catch Cole, who can be particular with his catchers, at “some point.” The rookie went through pregame prep with Cole as if he were catching on Tuesday, and Boone thought that watching the righty’s start could also help Wells. Cole .
“He’s gonna eat it up,” Boone said of Wells. “But that’s one of the things that stands out about Austin is his thirst for the little stuff within the game, which is important to have as a catcher. You gotta love the preparation. That’s hard work sometimes, or a lot of tedious work, a lot of video watching, a lot of paying attention to what’s going on. Taking the gameplan that’s there, incorporating your own thoughts. The early signs are that he’s a rat for that kind of stuff. He likes that, and he’s smart and has a presence. He’s shown he can go in and have conversations with established guys, and I think he’s gained a lot of respect here in just a few days.”
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