Yankees veteran is now fit but he still wants to be untracked

Anthony Rizzo breaks out of his early-season slump with a home run in the Yankees’ triumph.

Midway through spring training, Anthony Rizzo stated that he felt healthy and that the post-concussion symptoms that plagued him last year had subsided.

His back felt fine, and he was having a successful Grapefruit League season.

So he wasn’t too anxious about returning to normal during the regular season.

“Spring training is spring training, but given how my year ended personally last year, I put a little more stock in this spring,” Rizzo remarked while in Tampa last month. “Just consider how I felt last year. I recently told someone that if April arrives and, God forbid, I don’t get off to the best start — and I’ve gotten off to a bad start in my career — it won’t be because I’m worried about my health. Now it’s simply a matter of going out and playing the regular season.

But heading into Saturday night’s game against the Blue Jays in The Bronx, Rizzo was off to a shaky start: he was just 7-for-31 with a double, an RBI, three walks, and seven strikeouts, enough for an OPS of.572.

Rizzo singled off the wall in right field in Friday’s home opener before hitting his first home run of the season in the bottom of the fifth inning of Saturday’s 9-8 victory over Toronto. It was a two-run shot from the right field foul pole.

The Yankees are banking on Rizzo to recover after missing the last two months of 2023.

“Your value as a player comes from playing,” Rizzo added. “There is nothing worse for an athlete than not playing. That’s when you feel the worst. Even if you’re having a poor game, it’s still easier than not playing at all. So it feels fantastic to be in this position; all of the mental stuff is behind me, and my back felt great last year when I was out there.”

Still, he hasn’t hit a ball over 103 mph this season, and his average exit velocity of 84.7 mph and hard-hit rate of 29.2 percent are far lower than his career averages.

And so far this season, Rizzo has hit considerably more ground balls than in past years, resulting in fewer fly balls.

That is not what he or the Yankees want from the left-handed slugger, who has not profited much from the shift ban and must smash home runs to be productive.

Despite Rizzo’s claim that he is accustomed to slow beginnings, his career OPS in March and April of.841 is consistent with his overall career OPS of.837.

However, the line-drive single to right clocked at 102.1 mph on Friday could indicate that Rizzo is heating up.

Rizzo’s days of getting on base at a nearly 40% clip are likely over, but if the Yankees offense is to live up to expectations, the 34-year-old will need to contribute more than he has in the early going.