{"id":28678,"date":"2025-02-25T07:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T07:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=28678"},"modified":"2025-02-25T07:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T07:36:11","slug":"tough-reality-yankees-free-agent-faces-possible-end-of-career-it-could-be-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=28678","title":{"rendered":"TOUGH REALITY: Yankees Free Agent Faces Possible End of Career\u2014\u2018It Could Be It\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Anthony<\/picture>\n

First baseman Anthony Rizzo remains without a job this spring training<\/p>\n

Anthony Rizzo needs only to look at his former crosstown rival for the market\u2019s view of first basemen.<\/p>\n

New York Mets\u00a0slugging first baseman\u00a0Pete Alonso settled on a two-year, $54 million deal\u00a0with an opt out a week before spring training. Meanwhile, Rizzo, 35 and five years older than Alonso, sits, without a job, in the first days of spring training games.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI\u2019ve definitely thought about (the end). I think I have a lot to give to the game still,\u201d\u00a0Rizzo told The Athletic on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the same time, if teams are not going to want to pay a few million dollars for veterans, I\u2019ve seen it the last 10 years of my career. It\u2019s what happens to the older guys. They kind of get squeezed. You\u2019ve seen it happen more and more. I\u2019m not naive to it. It could be it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rizzo completed his four-year stint with the Yankees in 2024 when he batted .228\/.301\/.335 with eight home runs and 35 RBIs in 92 games (375 plate appearances). As he dealt with injuries over the past two seasons, his production dropped from a 130 OPS+ in 130 games in 2022 to a 94 in 2023 to 81 in 2024.<\/p>\n

He became a free agent in November when the Yankees declined his $17 million option. He got a buyout of $6 million, a number he can\u2019t get close to now to be on a major-league roster. But he doesn\u2019t plan on settling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m surprised, but not like crazy surprised just because I\u2019m a realist in the game and you\u2019re getting older,\u201d Rizzo said. \u201cThe fact that teams want you to play for basically league minimum ($760,000), I\u2019m like, you guys are crazy. You\u2019re almost trying to ruin the market for the next guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Rizzo is forced to retire, he will be able to look fondly at a productive career that included a World Series, three All-Star nods and four Gold Gloves. He has 303 career home runs, 1,644 hits and 965 RBIs with a .261\/.361\/.467 slash line (123 OPS+).<\/p>\n

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First baseman Anthony Rizzo remains without a job this spring training Anthony Rizzo needs only to look at his former crosstown rival for the market\u2019s view of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nTOUGH REALITY: Yankees Free Agent Faces Possible End of Career\u2014\u2018It Could Be It\u2019 - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=28678\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TOUGH REALITY: Yankees Free Agent Faces Possible End of Career\u2014\u2018It Could Be It\u2019 - 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