NEW YORK — Anthony Rizzo’s return from the Yankees’ injured list is imminent.
The veteran first baseman will make his return from a fractured right forearm as early as Saturday afternoon.
Rizzo played seven innings with Double-A Somerset on Friday night, the fifth game of his rehab assignment. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Friday afternoon — before a win over the Cardinals at Yankee Stadium — that depending on how Rizzo came through with the Patriots, the team may decide that he’s ready to go. Otherwise, he won’t need too many more games to ramp up in the minor leagues.
“I wanted him to play pretty much a full game,” Boone said. “He’ll play most of the game down there and then we’ll see where we are after the game if we want to do another one or bring him at that point.”
Rizzo ended up playing seven innings with Somerset. He was 0-for-3, playing those seven innings on defense.
“With him missing as much time as he has and not really played the field other than a few innings the last couple days, felt like we wanted to get him one more with some more volume,” Boone added.
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Rizzo hurt his arm while tumbling to the ground at first base on June 16 at Fenway Park. He was playing poorly before then — continuing to struggle mightily at the plate after a disappointing 2023 campaign — but the Yankees have been missing his presence due to the quality of contributions from DJ LeMahieu and Ben Rice at first base in his place.
The hope, Boone said, is that Rizzo can return and be a “real cog” in the Yankees’ lineup.
“I like where he’s at physically and his frame of mind,” Boone said. “He’s hungry for it. He’s chomping at the bit to get back. He’s fighting to get back. I just feel like he’s in a good place mentally to hopefully go on a good run for us, because we know how important he can be on both sides of the ball for us from a lineup standpoint.”
If Rizzo is reinstated from the 60-day IL on Saturday, the Yankees will need to make space on their 40-man roster and open up a slot on their active roster. Rice will likely be optioned down to Triple-A as the corresponding move as he’ll fall out of the playing time picture once Rizzo is back to playing every game.
Jon Berti was also in the Patriots’ lineup on Friday, starting at third base. The infielder has been sidelined with a calf strain since late May. Like Rizzo, he was 0-for-3 on Friday and played seven innings on defense.
The plan is for the infielder to play through the weekend with Somerset and then continue to suit up for a minor-league affiliate consistently next week, at least for a handful of games. At that point, once he finishes his rehab assignment, the Yankees will need Berti to be at the big-league level as he doesn’t have any minor-league options.
Active rosters expand to 28 on Sunday, meaning the Yankees have room for two more players. Since Berti won’t be ready quite yet, the Yankees can either add Rizzo and delay the demotion of Rice or pick another player on their 40-man to bring up to the Bronx, like top prospect Jasson Domínguez or infielder Oswald Peraza.
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Max Goodman may be reached at [email protected].
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Publish date : 2024-08-30 19:01:00
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