{"id":88778,"date":"2024-11-02T13:34:30","date_gmt":"2024-11-02T17:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=88778"},"modified":"2024-11-02T13:35:08","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T17:35:08","slug":"yankees-decline-rizzo-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/02\/yankees-decline-rizzo-option\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees Decline Veteran First Baseman&#8217;s 2025 Option"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Yankees have announced that they have declined their 2025 club option for veteran first baseman Anthony Rizzo. The 35-year-old would have made $17 million in 2025 if New York picked up the option. Because the team opted to decline, they&#8217;ll be charged a $6 million buyout.<\/p>\n<h2>Yankees Decline Veteran First Baseman&#8217;s 2025 Option<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Yankees have declined their 2025 club option for INF Anthony Rizzo.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 New York Yankees (@Yankees) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Yankees\/status\/1852738005846380782?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>However, this doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean it&#8217;s the end for Rizzo in the Bronx. They may bring him back on a shorter and less lucrative deal for 2025. But there&#8217;s also the chance that the Yankees move on from him as well. Rizzo struggled mightily this past season, and that&#8217;s just when he was healthy; suffering a long-term concussion in &#8217;23 and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/10\/03\/yankees-first-baseman-options-without-rizzo-postseason\/\" target=\"_self\">fracturing both his forearm and fingers<\/a> this season, it appears that the end may be near for the beloved first baseman.<\/p>\n<h3>Tough Breaks<\/h3>\n<p>Acquired from the Cubs during the 2021 season, Rizzo&#8217;s four seasons with the Yankees have been a mixed bag; the lefty slugged 32 home runs in 2022 and has never ceased playing excellent defense. Unfortunately, perhaps because he couldn&#8217;t stay healthy these past two years, he became more of a liability at the plate than a threat. In 92 games this season, Rizzo hit .228\/.301\/.335 with just 8 homers and 35 RBIs, accumulating a bWAR of 0.2. It makes sense why the Yankees wouldn&#8217;t want to bring him back on a $17 million deal with those numbers.<\/p>\n<h3>Other Options<\/h3>\n<p>As for who will take the reins at first base if Rizzo doesn&#8217;t resign, the Yankees could turn to free agency: Christian Walker, Pete Alonso, or even Paul Goldschmidt are all viable options in a loaded first base free agency class. However, depending on how much the Yankees spend signing (or resigning) other players, they may want to look internally for a first base solution. Their current options include Ben Rice, Oswaldo Cabrera, DJ LeMahieu, and TJ Rumfield. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/10\/31\/yankees-offseason-five-questions\/\" target=\"_self\">Rice and Rumfield<\/a> are both youngsters with hitting potential, so there may be a battle for the spot between them in Spring Training. Cabrera is an option, but he isn&#8217;t a natural first baseman. As for LeMahieu, well, it&#8217;s safe to say that he would be the last resort after an abysmal campaign in 2024.<\/p>\n<h3>End Of An Era<\/h3>\n<p>No matter what the Yankees decide to do at first, things will be different if Rizzo doesn&#8217;t return next season. The veteran was a massive presence in the clubhouse, not to mention one of Aaron Judge&#8217;s closest teammates. Rizzo may have one more shot in the Bronx, but it doesn&#8217;t look like the Yankees want to take that route unless it&#8217;s cheap.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Yankees have announced that they have declined their 2025 club option for veteran first baseman Anthony Rizzo. The 35-year-old would have made $17 million in 2025 if New York picked up the option. Because the team opted to decline, they&#8217;ll be charged a $6 million buyout. Yankees Decline Veteran First Baseman&#8217;s 2025 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5148,"featured_media":88799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1071,35],"tags":[501,67,28591,2517,696,5927,208,2402],"class_list":["post-88778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yankees","category-mlb","category-news","tag-aaron-judge","tag-anthony-rizzo","tag-ben-rice","tag-christian-walker","tag-dj-lemahieu","tag-oswaldo-cabrera","tag-paul-goldschmidt","tag-pete-alonso"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}