Anthony Rizzo is only 35. But with spring training games underway, he continues to linger on the free-agent market.
Rizzo wants to play. He’s healthy enough to play. Yet he knows the end of his career might be near.
“I’ve definitely thought about it. I think I have a lot to give to the game still,” the three-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner at first base said Friday in a telephone interview.
“But at the same time, if teams are not going to want to pay a few million dollars for veterans, I’ve seen it the last 10 years of my career. It’s what happens to the older guys. They kind of get squeezed. You’ve seen it happen more and more. I’m not naive to it. It could be it.”
Rizzo, a 14-year veteran, became a free agent when the New York Yankees declined his $17 million option, giving him a $6 million buyout that increased his career earnings to $127.6 million. The Yankees replaced him by awarding a one-year, $12.5 million free-agent contract to an even older first baseman, Paul Goldschmidt, 37.
Goldschmidt declined offensively in each of the past two seasons after winning the National League MVP award in 2022, but in both years appeared in 154 games. Rizzo, after two injury-marred seasons, understands why his market is less than robust. But he said he would not sign a deal that damages the future earning potential of players behind him.
“I mean, you’ve got to call a spade a spade,” Rizzo said. “Two years ago, I had kind of a weird year with the concussion. Then last year, I was hurt twice. My power numbers dropped. I’m surprised, but not like crazy surprised just because I’m a realist in the game and you’re getting older. The fact that teams want you to play for basically league minimum ($760,000), I’m like, you guys are crazy. You’re almost trying to ruin the market for the next guy.”
Rizzo’s injuries over the past two seasons resulted from incidents largely out of his control. He suffered a concussion stemming from a collision at first base, a fractured right forearm resulting from another collision while running out a ball and two broken knuckles in his right hand after he was hit by a pitch.
The last of those injuries occurred on Sept. 28. Rizzo missed the Division Series but returned from the ALCS. He said he received multiple numbing injections in multiple areas of his hand before and during postseason games. But the hand returned to full strength after the season ended, and Rizzo went through his normal offseason training regimen.
Even with his hand issues, Rizzo performed respectably in the playoffs, batting .267 with a .721 OPS. The treatment he received was so extensive, he said he would not take his first swings until about 35 minutes before a game. Few outside the Yankees’ orbit knew what he was experiencing.
“I’d be flushing it in the hyperbaric chamber, doing every treatment possible just to get that swelling out to be able to inject it again,” Rizzo said. “It was crazy. Obviously during the regular season, you’re not doing anything like that. But you do anything, World Series or playoff time, to play. It was worth it.”
His Yankees teammates appreciated him. And they miss him.
“Oh, man. Rizz is such a great guy,” infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. said. “Such a down-to-earth guy. Sometimes you forget he plays baseball, that he was a World Series champion and what a great player he was, with just how down to earth he is as a guy, man. He really helps everybody’s spirits.”
Added infielder Oswaldo Cabrera, “He’s a leader, man. I’m excited for all the players we have now. We have so many good, new people, who I love. But Rizzo, when I came into the big leagues, Rizzo was one of the guys who guided me in the right way to be a Yankee. Without him here as a teammate, obviously, we want Rizzo here. But we can’t control any of that. We love Rizzo.”
Rizzo, of course, was part of the play that helped turn Game 5 of the World Series, when the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mookie Betts hit a slow bouncer to first with the bases loaded, two outs and the Yankees leading, 5-0. Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole failed to cover first, Betts beat Rizzo to the bag and the Dodgers rallied to tie the score and ultimately prevail, 7-6.
In the aftermath, Cole said he took a bad angle to the ball after failing to read it properly. Rizzo said the spin on the ball forced him to stay back and make sure he fielded the grounder cleanly.
Does the play still cross Rizzo’s mind?
“It does,” Rizzo said. “A hundred out of hundred times I would do the exact same thing. I don’t want to cry, ‘Woe is me,’ with my hand. But the guys on the inside know how bad my hand was.
“A hundred out of hundred times I would do the exact same thing,” Anthony Rizzo said of the pivotal Game 5 play. (Robert Deutsch / Imagn Images)
“There’s so much extra that goes into that play. First off, you don’t want to (botch it). You have to catch that ball and secure it. It’s just one of those things where Gerrit was probably gassed.
“I always want the pitchers to go and if I call ‘em off, I call ‘em off. But it was just a messed-up play. I don’t think I could have really charged it more because of the way the spin was. It was pretty funky spin. And you had Mookie busting out of the box because he’s a professional. That’s what he does. The play just wasn’t made.”
For Rizzo, Game 5 is in the past, though the memory might never fade. His immediate concern is where he will land, if anywhere, for the 2025 season. His wife, Emily, is due to give birth to their first child, a boy, on June 15. For that reason, Rizzo said if the money isn’t right, signing with a non-contender and potentially getting traded in July is particularly unappealing.
He is not the only veteran without a job. Alex Verdugo, Mark Canha and Jose Iglesias are among the position players who remain free agents; Jose Quintana, Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn are among the starting pitchers; Craig Kimbrel, David Robertson and Phil Maton are among the relievers.
Rizzo believes the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement after the 2026 season might be influencing club behavior toward veteran players. After a new CBA is signed, he said, “You have one or two years of monster spending and then there are a couple of years of squeezing players, posturing for the upcoming CBA. It’s kind of the part of the cycle every five years.”
So for now, he waits.
“It’s very weird. It kind of feels like 2020 all over again,” Rizzo said, referring to the season that was delayed by COVID-19 and did not begin until late July. “You go, do your thing, work out. I’m going to train until the season starts and even well into the season and see what happens.
“I want to play. I want to win. And I love talking the game with pitchers, with hitters. There’s so much to dive into. Everything that goes into it, on the field, off the field, I’ll still be talking about it with guys. We’ll just see if I continue playing.”
(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
