The New York Yankees continue to slip down the American League standings. And some news that emerged on Thursday regarding former All-Star first baseman Anthony Rizzo certainly won’t help things.
Rizzo has been in a drastic slump for the past two months, hitting for a batting average of .173 in the month of June and .167 in the month of July.
It now seems like there may be an explanation for these struggles for Rizzo. The team announced on Thursday that Rizzo will be taking a trip to the IL after tests showed that he has post-concussion syndrome.
According to Yankees manager Aaron Boone, the organization traces Rizzo’s undiagnosed concussion back to a collision with San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. that happened back on May 28th.
If you take a look at the video of the collision, it certainly makes sense that Rizzo suffered some sort of head injury on the play. He appeared to be on wobbly legs shortly after making contact with Tatis.
Regardless, fans are certainly questioning how this injury went undiagnosed by the team for over two months.
Boone did add that Rizzo went through MLB concussion protocol at the time of the injury, and passed all of his tests. And he has only recently complained about having fogginess.
If Boone is telling the truth about this situation, then it truly is just an unfortunate situation for both Rizzo and the Yankees organization.
However, if they knew about Rizzo’s concussion in any way or that he was feeling off for the two months after his collision, then the Yankees are very clearly in the wrong and should be criticized heavily for playing an injured player.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.