New York Yankees

New York Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo will be placed on the injured list after experiencing headaches following an epidural last week, manager Aaron Boone announced Tuesday.

Boone had discussed the situation Monday, via Lou DiPietro of WFAN:

Rizz is still at home; kind of doctor's orders to rest, just because he was getting some headaches from the epidural. Back is doing well, but they want him to rest and make sure he's asymptomatic from any of the headaches. None yesterday, none so far today, and if that's the case tomorrow, he can come in here Wednesday and start ramping up.

New York will call up first baseman Ronald Guzmán ahead of Wednesday's doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins.

Rizzo, 33, is having another solid season, hitting .225/.339/.493 with 30 home runs and 71 RBI. But lingering back issues—a theme in the past few years—have cost him time.

The three-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove Award winner was a staple for the Chicago Cubs from 2012 to 2021, a 10-year run that included the 2016 World Series title. Rizzo has posted nine seasons with more than 20 homers, five seasons with 30 or more dingers and four seasons with more than 100 RBI.

For a Cubs team that reached the postseason in five of his last six full years, Rizzo was a consistent source of production in a golden era.

But with the team struggling last season, Chicago dealt Rizzo to the Yankees. Mainstays Kris Bryant and Javier Báez were also traded.

Rizzo re-signed with the Yanks in the offseason and has played 117 games.

New York has struggled to score lately with three runs or fewer in eight of its past 10 games, which has led to a 4-6 record during that span. The Yankees have won two in a row and lead the American League East by five games, a margin that had reached 15.5 on July 8.

Rizzo last played Wednesday as a defensive replacement. He had hit a home run in each of the two previous games.

While Rizzo is sidelined, DJ LeMahieu and Marwin Gonzalez will likely get more work at first base, and Guzmán will also be an option.

Another day, another home run for Aaron Judge.

The New York Yankees slugger hit his 52nd home run of the season in the ninth inning of Saturday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field to tie his career-high in four-baggers.

52. 👨‍⚖️#AllRise pic.twitter.com/8a5KFAOs6X

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 4, 2022

However, Judge's late home run wasn't enough as the Yankees went on to lose 2-1, dropping their third straight game.

Despite the loss, the Yankees remain first in the AL East with a 79-53 record, five games ahead of the second-place Rays. Still, the team is 9-20 since the trade deadline and is in one of its worst stretches of the season.

While the Pinstripes are struggling, Judge is playing at an MVP level this season and entered Saturday's game slashing .294/.398/.661 with 51 home runs, 113 RBI and 15 stolen bases in 128 games.

The Yankees will be leaning more and more on Judge as the end of the regular season nears, but the remainder of the team must improve if it wants to make a deep postseason run.

As the New York Yankees continue to struggle, manager Aaron Boone has seemingly hit a breaking point after a 9-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.

"That's an embarrassing loss," Boone told reporters Friday. "Hopefully, one of those rock-bottom situations, where you should be pissed off and embarrassed. We've set a better standard around here. We just got to be better. Period."

Nothing went well for the Yankees in Friday's loss, which was the team's largest margin of defeat this season. The bullpen gave up six runs, while the offense was held to just five hits in the shutout, with only one hit coming from the 1-through-5 spots in the lineup.

"It's just embarrassing when you get beat like that and you're going through the struggles you are," Boone added.

The loss was the Yankees' fifth in the last six games, part of a 15-25 record since the All-Star break. The Rays have cut the division lead down to just five games, putting even more pressure on New York during this three-game series.

After a blowout loss in Game 1, Boone is looking for a better effort from his team going forward.

As questions continue to linger about the future of MLB home run leader Aaron Judge, who's a free agent at season's end, rival executives reportedly expect him to remain with the New York Yankees.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported Thursday that "most" within baseball think the Yanks will find a way to re-sign the four-time All-Star outfielder.

"They have to keep him, don't they?" an unnamed general manager told Heyman.

In June, Judge and the Yankees agreed on a one-year, $19 million contract for 2022 to avoid a hearing for his final year of arbitration. The slugger said no further discussions would be held about a long-term deal.

"That's for when the season's done," Judge told reporters.

The 30-year-old California native has bolstered his value with a terrific season. He's compiled a .296/.399/.664 slash line with 51 home runs and 15 stolen bases in 127 appearances. No one else in baseball has more than 36 homers.

Judge has played his entire career with New York, which selected him in the first round of the 2013 draft. He reached the major leagues in 2016 and won the AL Rookie of the Year Award in 2017 after hitting 52 longballs in his first full season.

His foray into free agency could be a watershed moment for the modern-day Yankees.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Yanks under George Steinbrenner were willing to spare no expense to chase World Series titles.

The financial balance of power has shifted toward the Los Angeles Dodgers and, more recently, the New York Mets over the past decade, though.

With Judge putting himself in line to receive a monster contract, the Yankees will likely have to step up if they're going to outbid those bid-spending rivals and others.

Although discussions about the Yanks' lack of spending are a bit overblown—they still rank third with a $252.2 million payroll this season, per Spotrac—it's reasonable to question whether they'll keep Judge no matter the price. There may be a limit.

If the likely AL MVP leaves over the winter, there will be incredible pressure on the front office to make other moves during the offseason to keep the club in championship contention next year and beyond.

Staying with the Yankees still seems like the most probable outcome for Judge, though.

The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels have played some good baseball over the last two nights, yet arguably more compelling has been the anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better contest between the American League's leading MVP contenders.

First, there was reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani hitting a go-ahead home run for the Angels on Monday:

That's our MVP 🏆#GoHalos pic.twitter.com/EnyOY7QJ1k

— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) August 30, 2022

And later, Aaron Judge responding with a 434-footer for his 50th home run of the season for the Yankees.

Then on Tuesday, he added No. 51:

#AllRise for Home Run 51 🙌 pic.twitter.com/qL7i5k3rli

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 31, 2022

Though the AL MVP race was already on before the Judge vs. Ohtani show started in Anaheim, it really feels on now.

DraftKings has Judge (-1000) as the favorite, with Ohtani (+550) as really the only player whose odds are within shouting distance. With only one month left in the 2022 Major League Baseball season, neither player can afford to weaken his case for the award.

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The Case (So Far) for Aaron Judge

It's just not every year that a guy hits 51 home runs, much less before the end of August. The notion of Judge carving out his niche in history is thus no longer in the realm of hyperbole.

As he's on pace to hit 64 home runs, Roger Maris' American League record of 61 from 1961 is well within Judge's reach. Simply hitting nine more would allow him to secure only the ninth 60-homer season in MLB history, and only the third to take place outside of the league's steroid era of the 1990s and early 2000s.

In the meantime, Judge is already one of just eight players to ever pair 50-plus home runs with an OPS+ north of 190, denoting that he's more than 90 percent better than the average hitter in 2022. And with a 15-homer lead over Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber, he's threatening the largest gap for a league-wide home run title winner since Jimmie Foxx beat Babe Ruth by 17 in 1932, as noted by Benjamin Hoffman of the New York Times.

As for what other numbers the 30-year-old has going for him, how about AL-leading marks for the following:

• 76 Walks
• 104 Runs Scored
• 113 Runs Batted In
• 71 Extra-Base Hits
• 312 Total Bases
• .667 SLG
• 1.064 OPS
• 7.7 rWAR
• 5.6 WPA

The most telling of these figures might be Judge's 5.6 WPA. That stands for "win probability added," and Judge's lead in that category ought to be as self-explanatory as the phrase itself.

Among his exploits this year are four game-tying home runs and 15 go-ahead home runs. The latter collection includes three walk-offs, tying him with Mickey Mantle for the Yankees' single-season record.

Aaron Judge's magical season continues! #Walkoff pic.twitter.com/sTy6nMhtVH

— MLB (@MLB) July 29, 2022

Far from a bat-only player, Judge has also been a godsend for the Yankees on defense. Quantifiably so, in the sense that his metrics are in the black. And also not-so-quantifiably, in the sense that the 6'7", 282-pound right fielder has frequently taken one for the team by starting 60 times in center field. That's allowed the Yankees to hide the hole at that position.

With the Yankees sitting comfortably atop the AL East at 79-51, Judge has already done much to move the needle for the team's quest to win its first World Series since 2009. And while said quest has been sidetracked with a 18-28 record since July 9, it's not Judge's fault.

He's indeed done his utmost to keep the losses from piling up, as his wRC+ (which operates similarly to OPS+) has gone up while his at-bats per home run have gone down:

• Through July 8: 173 wRC+, 10.3 AB/HR
• Since July 9: 239 wRC+, 7.6 AB/HR

Seriously, what more could you ask from an offensive player?

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The Case (So Far) for Shohei Ohtani

Ooh, I know. How about if the same offensive player was also an elite pitcher?

That was the book on the 28-year-old Ohtani en route to his unanimous MVP victory in 2021, and so it is once again in 2022. Per his 148 OPS+, he's the fifth-best hitter in the American League. Per his 152 ERA+, he's also the Junior Circuit's fourth-best starting pitcher.

From these perspectives, Ohtani hasn't actually backslid even though his home run output has slipped from 46 last year to 29 thus far in 2022. And considering that his '21 campaign was seriously discussed as one of the greatest in history, that he's basically doing it all over again is not to be underrated.

If WAR is the best way to measure the totality of Ohtani's contributions, it's a good enough reflection that his 7.2 rWAR only puts him half a win off Judge's pace. Yet there's also a good argument that WAR isn't the best measure of Ohtani's total value, as he pays an arguably unfair positional penalty for taking his at-bats exclusively as a designated hitter.

Further, Ohtani's clutchness rivals Judge's more than many might realize.

A higher rate (12 of 29 for 41 percent) of Ohtani's home runs have given the Angels either a tie or the lead than Judge's (19 of 51 for 37 percent) have for the Yankees. He's also one of baseball's best jam-escapers on the mound, ranking second in the AL with an 82.6 left-on-base percentage and first with a .461 OPS with runners in scoring position.

Shohei Ohtani, K'ing 3 consecutive hitters.

Getting out of a bases loaded, no out jam. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/GXOwWYnRjN

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 29, 2022

As was the case in 2021, the catch with Ohtani's latest MVP pursuit is that it's going to waste on an Angels team that's nowhere to be found in the AL playoff picture. They went as high as 11 games over .500 on May 15, but they've since dropped 61 out of 93.

But just as Judge has continued to fight the good fight amid the Yankees' recent struggles, so has Ohtani on both sides of the ball for the Angels. His wRC+ has likewise gone up, while his ERA- (basically ERA+, except lower is better) has gone down:

• Through May 15: 123 wRC+, 70 ERA-
• Since May 16: 154 wRC+, 66 ERA- 

To label Ohtani as any kind of responsible for the grim state of the Angels is the opposite of fair. Indeed, it's entirely possible that neither team would be in a different spot right now if Ohtani was on the Yankees and Judge was on the Angels.

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It All Comes Down to September

Then again, where the Angels and Yankees would be right now if Ohtani and Judge had switched places at the outset of 2022 might not be the best thought experiment.

As posed by Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay on Twitter, there's also the relatively simple question of where both clubs would be without their biggest stars:

I’ve been covering baseball for 36 years and the season @TheJudge44 is having is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Take hm off the @yankees and they’d have trouble making playoffs. Take Ohtani off @Angels and they still would be on the outside looking in. Most valuable?

— Michael Kay (@RealMichaelKay) August 30, 2022

Kay might not be wrong about the Yankees being more of a fringe playoff contender sans Judge. His 7.6 rWAR accounts for 26.4 percent of the offense's total output of 28.7. Likewise, the Bronx Bombers would be missing a quarter of their 205 home runs without him.

That Ohtani is nonetheless seen as having a shot—both in the betting odds and in various pockets of The Discourse as well—at the AL MVP speaks to the ongoing appreciation for and fascination with his unprecedented two-way talent. It also helps that he's not letting up, as August has seen Ohtani post a 1.030 OPS at the plate and a 2.20 ERA on the mound.

Ohtani's AL MVP chances would surely look that much better if he stays hot as Judge cools in September, for which there's a non-zero chance of happening.

Take what befell Giancarlo Stanton amid his own hunt for 60 home runs in 2017. He had 51 through the Miami Marlins' 132nd game, but then pitchers stopped challenging him with fastballs and his pace slowed accordingly. He finished with "only" 59 home runs.

Yet it's almost as if Judge had been anticipating similar treatment.

Though he's already seen his share of fastballs dry up in August, that hasn't stopped him from slugging nine home runs this month. As much as Judge likes fastballs, he also knows to take a hanging breaking ball (i.e., this one or this one) when offered.

As long as Judge continues to stay in his approach, there won't be any avenues for imminent danger to creep up on his pursuit of home run history. His lead position in the AL MVP race will likewise remain safe, and it's not a given that there will be an opening for Ohtani even if Judge cools enough to fall short of the fabled 60-homer plateau.

Judge has, after all, already established himself as the kind of competition that Ohtani didn't have as he ran away with last year's AL MVP race. Though Marcus Semien and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. both topped 40 home runs, both of them finished roughly two WAR shy of Ohtani for a Toronto Blue Jays squad that missed the playoffs.

So, barring an as-yet-unknown force capable of shrinking Judge down to size, the AL MVP is his to lose.

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Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.

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New York Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman is going on the injured list with a leg infection.

Manager Aaron Boone told reporters prior to Saturday's game against the Oakland Athletics that Chapman's infection came after he got a tattoo recently.

This will mark his second stint on the injured list in 2022. The 34-year-old was placed on the 15-day injured list May 24 with Achilles tendinitis and missed 38 games with the ailment before returning July 2.

Chapman is undoubtedly past his prime and is struggling to find a rhythm this season. In 36 games, he's earned nine saves and has posted a 4.70 ERA, 1.44 WHIP and 35 strikeouts across 30.2 innings.

He has been with the Yankees for parts of seven seasons. New York traded him to the Chicago Cubs during the 2016 campaign before re-signing him ahead of the 2017 season, and he has been with them ever since.

In 308 games across those seven seasons with the Yankees, Chapman has posted a 2.93 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 153 saves and 445 strikeouts across 288.2 innings. He is in the final year of a three-year, $48 million contract and will be an unrestricted free agent after the 2022 campaign if he can't reach an agreement on an extension in the Bronx.

The Yankees have turned things around after a bit of a lull coming out of the All-Star break. Their 78-48 record has them 8.5 games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays for the top spot in the American League East.

Paul O'Neill's jersey retirement ceremony on Sunday at Yankee Stadium featured a plethora of boos from the crowd, but they weren't directed toward the five-time World Series champion who played for the Pinstripes from 1993 to 2001.

Yankees fans booed managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman during the 33-minute ceremony amid the team's recent skid that has seen it lose the American League's best record, per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN).

Hal Steinbrenner got some boos from Yankees fans as he presented Paul O'Neill with a #21 plaque pic.twitter.com/Q3Z46ViSYd

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) August 21, 2022

Steinbrenner was booed as he presented O'Neill with a replica of his Yankee Stadium plaque, according to Zach Braziller of the New York Post. Cashman did not make an appearance at the ceremony but was booed when Steinbrenner mentioned him.

The Yankees have been in a slump since play resumed after the mid-July All-Star break, going 9-20 since then. They have been even worse in August, going just 4-14, the worst mark in baseball.

After Saturday's loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, Pinstripes manager Aaron Boone voiced his frustration while meeting with the media, slamming his palm on the table in anger as New York lost its sixth straight series for the first time since 1995:

"We have to play better. Period," he said. "And the great thing is, it's right in front of us. It's right here, and we can fix it."

https://twitter.com/MarlyRiveraESPN/status/1561091129130582016

Yankees star Aaron Judge expressed similar frustrations while speaking with the media following Saturday's loss:

"We're not happy about it," Judge said. "If you lose one game, or if you lose 10 games, you're not happy at all. But if we sit here and stay frustrated about one game, it's going to lead into the next game.

"So, it's about us picking ourselves up, and not forgetting we're the New York Yankees. And we have to go out there and show people that."

The Yankees are still first in the AL East with a 73-48 record but sit 3.5 games behind the Houston Astros for the AL lead after it once seemed like they had a stranglehold on the entire AL with how well they were playing.

Luckily, the Yankees are still on pace to make the postseason, but they must turn things around quickly if they want to maintain their seven-game AL East lead over the second-place Blue Jays.

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone wants to see a little more fire from his club as it tries to break out of a slump that continued with a 4-0 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night.

"We should be ticked off right now, and we need to start playing better," Boone told reporters. "Plain and simple."

The Yanks, who owned MLB's best record at the All-Star break last month (64-28), have gone 9-19 so far in the second half, including 14 losses in their past 18 games.

New York's bats, which were virtually unstoppable at points throughout the season's first four months, have gone ice cold in August. The club has been shut out three times in its past six contests, and its scored more than three runs just once over the past 10 outings.

Boone explained after Friday's loss that there are only so many things he can say amid the skid, but he remains confident a turnaround is on the horizon.

"We can sit here, and I can keep answering questions and talk about it ... but we've got to go do it," he said. "And the good news is we've got all the pieces in that room to do that. I know that's coming. I know it's going to happen, but it really sucks going through it."

The Yankees did receive some good news Friday when Boone announced outfielder Giancarlo Stanton is set to begin a rehab assignment Saturday. The slugger tallied 24 home runs in 80 games before landing on the injured list with Achilles tendinitis in late July.

Getting Stanton back to provide some added middle-of-the-order protection for MVP candidate Aaron Judge could be the spark the Bronx Bombers desperately need.

That's still a handful of days away, however, and the Yanks' lead in the AL East has shrunk from a seemingly insurmountable 15.5 games to a less certain eight games over the Blue Jays. It could be down to six if Toronto takes the last two matchups in this weekend's series.

"I don't give a crap about the [divisional] lead," Boone said. "Play better. We'll handle it. You can talk about that—eight, nine, seven, 10—we need to play better. If we play like this, it's not going to matter anyway. We handle our business, we're in a great spot. We understand that. But we need to handle our business."

Nevertheless, the pressure is really starting to mount on the Yankees to right the ship to prevent an unprecedented second-half collapse.

New York Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton will begin a rehab assignment from an Achilles injury on Saturday, manager Aaron Boone told reporters Friday.

Stanton has not played since a July 23 loss to the Baltimore Orioles and was placed on the injured list on July 26 with Achilles tendinitis.

The news comes after Boone told reporters Wednesday that Stanton could return from his injury at some point next week and that the team was hopeful he could start a rehab assignment this weekend.

This is Stanton's second stint on the injured list this season. His first came in May, when he went on the IL with a right calf injury.

With Stanton sidelined, the Yankees have lost 15 of their last 23 games and have fallen out of the American League lead, sitting 3.5 games behind the first-place Houston Astros with a 73-46 record.

The Pinstripes still hold a comfortable nine-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East. However, the club can't be happy with its play of late, and it needs to turn things around before the end of the season.

The star slugger said earlier this week that it's been tough to watch the Yankees struggle while he's been sidelined.

"Very annoying," Stanton said of staying patient as the Yankees struggle, per Greg Joyce of the New York Post. "It’s annoying not playing in general. But you gotta be smart also. That trumps everything."

Stanton's return should help give the offense a spark. He's hitting .228/.309/.498 this season with 24 home runs and 61 RBI. That said, the team will need some other players to step up regardless, including DJ LeMahieu, Josh Donaldson and Andrew Benintendi.

Veteran reliever Dellin Betances, who has pitched for both the New York Yankees and New York Mets, has retired from MLB after 10 seasons, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post.

Betances had most recently been a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. In 15 appearances for the team's Triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City, he recorded an 11.08 ERA with 12 strikeouts and 14 walks, per Blake Harris.

Betances last appeared in the majors in 2021 for the Mets, pitching just one inning before a right shoulder impingement caused him to go on the injured list and eventually led to season-ending surgery. His last full season came in 2020, when he struggled across 15 appearances with a 7.71 ERA and 11 strikeouts in 11.2 innings pitched.

Betances' injury issues began in 2019 with his first shoulder impingement. He didn't make his season debut until September of that year, but his only outing on the mound was ended when he suffered a torn Achilles.

At one point in his career, Betances was one of the most feared late-inning relievers in MLB. He was selected to four straight All-Star Games while he was with the Yankees from 2014 to 2017. During that stretch and including 2018, he notched 100 or more strikeouts each year while pitching less than 100 innings.

Born in Manhattan, Betances fulfilled a dream by playing for the Yankees after growing up as a fan of the team.

"This is a dream come true, to be honest with you," Betances told ESPN during his first major-league spring training in 2011. "It is kind of surreal to watch these guys you were watching on TV and watch on the stadium and now you have the chance to play with them and help them win."