The Yankees put Anthony Rizzo on the 10-day injured list with what they described as “post-concussion syndrome,” stemming from a collision with San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. on a pick-off attempt at first base.
The first baseman admitted to feeling “fogginess,” and telling the Yankees’ training staff at the end of their series against the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday, to which they initially did nothing. He played Monday and Tuesday — but the most concerning issue is that the run-in with Tatis initially happened on May 28. Not over the weekend, in the last week, or even the last month.
Rizzo has played with concussion symptoms for 10 weeks, basically — an alarming showing of incompetence from the Yankees to not identify issues with the 33-year-old.
“You wake up some days feeling not very good; some days, you feel better,” Rizzo said on Thursday (h/t MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch). “That’s kind of normal throughout the year. It was more walking back and saying, ‘Man, I don’t understand how I missed that pitch.’ I would swing at a pitch middle-away, and I thought it was three feet off the plate. Things like that really started making me concerned.”
Rizzo admitted to feeling more fatigue, forgetting how many outs there were at times when in the field, and waking up feeling hungover. Tests run by the Yankees revealed slowed reaction times, per Hoch.
Yet the first baseman was allowed to play for over two months as manager Aaron Boone implored that he passed all tests taken directly after the incident with Tatis.
Even if he didn’t go to the medical staff to alert them of his symptoms, his play also suggested that something was amiss. Since May 28, he’s batted .172 with a .496 OPS, one home run, and nine RBI (46 games).
“The way I kind of describe it, you go to bed sober and you wake up a little hungover,” Rizzo said. “When that happens, that doesn’t seem normal.”
