Anthony Rizzo’s roller-coaster season is finished.
The Yankees’ first baseman has been shut down as he continues to address his brain health.
Rizzo has not played since Aug. 1, after which he acknowledged a fogginess that doctors believe stems from post-concussion syndrome.
Rizzo has not encountered a setback, but he has not yet been cleared to play.
With the Yankees out of the playoff hunt and with Rizzo due for another checkup in “another couple of weeks,” Aaron Boone said, the decision was made that Rizzo will not return this season.
“I would say everything is going well,” the manager said Tuesday before the Yankees opened a series with the Tigers in The Bronx. “His most recent checkup was all the things we’re looking for as far as his improvements.
“We’re just kind of up against the clock. But he’s continuing to work out — he’s continuing to make all the right cognitive improvements.”
The Yankees believe Rizzo’s brain injury was suffered May 28, during a collision with the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. at first base.
Rizzo finished that game with an .880 OPS and 11 home runs in 53 games, putting together the makings of what might have been his fourth All-Star season during a strong two months for the first baseman and his team.
After the crash with Tatis, he and the Yankees tanked. Rizzo posted a .496 OPS with one home run in 46 games, a plummet during which his reaction time fell — a fact he would only learn later, when Rizzo told the team he felt a brain fog.
The Yankees, meanwhile, unknowingly lost a healthy Rizzo when they were 32-23. Their season spiraled from there and culminated with a September youth movement for a group out of the race.
There is still so much unknown about head injuries and how they linger, but Boone cited Rizzo’s progress — his reaction time has improved through his checkups — in expressing a hope there will be no persisting effects in his future.
Rizzo had wanted to return this season, but Boone said Rizzo understood the decision.
“I think he’s in a good place,” Boone said. “I think the doctors and he have seen the progress they’ve wanted to see. I feel like he’s encouraged by where he’s at.”
After originally suffering the injury, Rizzo missed three games with what the team called neck stiffness.
He passed all tests for a concussion in the immediate aftermath of the collision. Rizzo returned and consistently told the team he felt healthy, but his bat never came back.
The 34-year-old played for two months without realizing his head was impaired.
He told the club in late July of quieter symptoms — he would wake up feeling hungover even though he had not drank any alcohol — and finally met with neurologists, who identified what Rizzo has said was a “cascading concussion.”
Boone said there will always be regret when an injury does not get immediately diagnosed, but the Yankees followed the protocols in place.
“I think you’re probably always trying to update and find higher ground with protocols and whatever it is. Obviously the head has been one of those curious or hard to diagnose [cases],” Boone said. “I think we’ve gone leaps and bounds in the last five, 10 years, and there’s probably more ground continued to be gained in how guys get diagnosed and what to look for.”
Rizzo will finish his 13th year in the majors with his lowest OPS (.706) outside of his brief rookie season.
He hit 11 home runs in 58 games of the 2020, COVID-shortened season; he hit 12 in 99 games this year. In just about every category, Rizzo fell off a cliff.
Before he was diagnosed, Rizzo believed his mechanics must be off because, he thought, a player cannot just forget how to hit.
After doctors pinpointed the issue, the club hopes it will get a healthy, middle-of-the-order bat back next season.
“He’s been kind of a model of consistency in what’s been a really good career,” Boone said of Rizzo. “I think the fact that we can trace it … it’s like, ‘OK, there’s probably a reason here now that you weren’t the player that you’ve been really your entire career.’
“I think the things that he’s doing and the tools that we now have that I think help guys that have been through something like this should put him on good footing moving forward.”
