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ANAHEIM, Calif. — On the way to the majors’ third-best record entering Wednesday, the Yankees have received key contributions from just about everybody on their roster, including Anthony Rizzo.
And yet, through the first two months of the season, Rizzo has not looked quite like himself.
There are far worse problems to have than a first baseman producing at around a league-average rate — especially because Rizzo remains an important voice in the clubhouse, which cannot be discounted when evaluating his overall impact.
But when healthy, Rizzo has shown what kind of lift he can give the Yankees on both sides of the ball, which makes it stand out when he is not doing it on a consistent basis, as has been the case early on this season.
The 34-year-old came back under the microscope Tuesday night, when he booted a ground ball that should have gotten the Yankees out of the eighth inning with a 3-2 lead.
Instead, it gave the Angels another out and they rallied for a 4-3 win.
The play was originally ruled a fielding error on Rizzo, though it was somehow changed to a hit by the end of the night, despite the veteran first baseman saying it was a play he needed to make.
Rizzo, a four-time Gold Glove winner, had some defensive miscues early in the season but had been playing better of late before bobbling a pair of balls in the last two games before Wednesday — the first on a bunt in Sunday’s loss to the Padres.
“Honestly, disappointing,” Rizzo said of his defense overall this year. “But over the last few weeks, fairly good. But to my standard that I hold myself to, I just need to be better. I need to make that play. It stinks.”
Through 55 games, Rizzo’s minus-one Defensive Runs Saved ranked 14th among qualified first basemen and his zero Outs Above Average were tied for 16th.
“He had some hiccups there real early and since then has gotten clean and what we’re used to with Rizz,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Couple mistakes here and there, but it’s on top of early where he made a few mistakes. Little uncharacteristic there, but part of it. We always talk about the offense going through it, sometimes even the best go through it, a mistake here and there defensively. It can be challenging. He’s still great over there, just a couple hiccups here lately.”
Rizzo, who was out on the field at Angel Stadium early Wednesday afternoon to take extra batting practice with hitting coaches James Rowson and Pat Roessler, has also been in a quiet stretch at the plate.
He came into Wednesday batting .208 with a .555 OPS through his last 26 games and .245 with a .680 OPS on the season.
Boone dropped him to batting seventh against left-hander Tyler Anderson on Wednesday for the first time this season.
Among 25 qualified first basemen, Rizzo’s 0.1 fWAR ranked 18th among.
His .680 OPS ranked 16th and his 99 WRC+ (an adjusted measure of offensive production relating to run creation, with 100 being league average) ranked 15th.
It’s still a far cry from Rizzo’s final two months of last season before he landed on the IL with post-concussion syndrome stemming from a late-May collision at first base.
And given Rizzo’s track record — again, when healthy — he should be capable of righting the ship over the course of 162 games.
The return of DJ LeMahieu this week should also give Boone the chance to give Rizzo the occasional breather after starting 55 of the Yankees’ first 56 games at first base.
But many of numbers so far have not measured up to his career marks.
That is particularly the case against southpaws, which the left-handed hitting Rizzo has typically fared well against.
This season (in 59 plate appearances entering Wednesday), he was batting just .185 with a .439 OPS against left-handers, compared to .266 with a .765 OPS in 170 plate appearances against righties.
