Anthony Rizzo suffers a broken finger after an unlucky hit

manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including MLB.com's Bryan Hoch) after today's loss to the Pirates that this first baseman Anthony Rizzo suffered two broken fingers when he was hit by a pitch from the Pittsburgh left-hander Ryan Borucki. Hoch later added that, according to Boone, the first baseman had actually broken both the fourth and fifth fingers on his right hand. Rizzo left the game after the incident and it is not yet clear when he will be able to return to the diamond. As Hoch noted, Boone did not rule out Rizzo for the club's upcoming postseason push.

“We’ll see what we have over the course of the week” Boone said. “That doesn’t rule him out completely. It’s a pain tolerance thing.”

It's the latest injury setback for Rizzo in a string of frustrating injuries during his tenure with the Yankees. After eight seasons in Chicago in which Rizzo was rarely injured and appeared in 94% of the Cubs' regular-season games from 2013 until his move to the Bronx in 2021, the veteran first baseman was with the Cubs far less available to Yankees. While he played 130 games in his first full season with the club in 2022, his final two years were marred by post-concussion syndrome and a broken forearm that sidelined him for several months and left him playing less than 60% of the time . of the club's competitions over the last two years.

These injury issues have been accompanied by a decline in performance for the 35-year-old, who is hitting just .227/.298/.334 in 91 games this year. It's his worst performance in a season since the 49-game triumph against San Diego that began his long big league career, and a far cry from the performance the Yankees certainly hoped for when they hired him signed to a two-year contract that guaranteed him $40 million before the 2023 season. That being said, even losing a diminished version of Rizzo is still a blow to the Yankees' roster heading into the postseason.

Finally, the club recorded lackluster production through a combination of Ben Rice And DJ LeMahieu at first base in Rizzo's absence; Only the Rockies posted a lower wRC+ at first base than the 76 the Yankees posted in Rizzo's absence, and the club's -1.1 fWAR at the position puts them ahead of only the Astros among all AL clubs. It should also be noted that since returning to the lineup on September 1st, Rizzo, while hardly the force in center field that he was earlier in his career, has hit better overall, hitting .247/.345/.315 with slash in 84 plate appearances . That's good for a WRC+ that's more than 15 points higher than the numbers Rice and LeMahieu combined in his absence.

If Rizzo is healthy enough to take the field for the Yankees when the ALDS begins Oct. 5, it's likely he'll be the club's best option at first base. Failing that, however, Hoch points out that Boone has confirmed that Rice would be an option for the club's postseason squad. Rice, a 25-year-old rookie, is a bat-first catcher who has begun moving to first base in recent years, in part to accommodate the rapid progression of his offense. The youngster is hitting a sensational .294/.428/.661 in 30 games at the Triple-A level this year after posting similarly stellar numbers in 97 career games at the Double-A level, but he hit just .174/.269/.356 in a 49-game cup of coffee over the summer.

That number includes a slightly stronger slash line of .184/.265/.395 in 132 appearances against right-handers at the major league level. That could make him an excellent choice for a left-handed platoon partner, but with LeMahieu on the IL in the midst of the worst season of his career in which he hit just .164/.235/.206 against southpaws, there aren't many good ones Options for this role. One possibility would be Utility Man Jon Bertiwho has a decent career slash line of .250/.328/.384 against lefties, but it would be a bold decision for the club to move Berti to first base in the middle of the playoffs with no experience at the position given his extraordinary variety of positions. Switch hitter Oswaldo Cabrera has some experience at first base and even replaced Rizzo there after his departure today, but he's only batted .206/.251/.306 against southpaws to this point in his career.