Well, having just made a huge swap on the left side of their infield, are the New York Yankees about to finalize the right side of their infield, too?
We always knew they might want to bring Anthony Rizzo back, and if they aren’t going to land Freddie Freeman:
Yankees see Anthony Rizzo as the realistic good first base option now, and will try to make that work. Their expectation, as is the case with most, all along has been that the Freeman sweepstakes is between the Braves and Dodgers.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 14, 2022
Indeed, if the Yankees are definitely not going to get Freeman, they might be wise to try to land Rizzo ASAP before Freeman makes his decision. Stay tuned on that.
As for the Cubs, you’ll recall that the rumor was that the Cubs were considering making Rizzo an offer as soon as the lockout ended. It’s possible they did, and we simply haven’t heard (and he hasn’t accepted).
It seems more likely, however, that the Cubs wanted to wait out the Freeman/Olson/Rizzo stuff to see how it shook loose, and then determine if they could get a sweet deal on Rizzo. I also tend to think the Cubs really are waiting to see what happens with the Padres’ financial ruminations, because if it involves Eric Hosmer, the Cubs might then want to use him as a platoon option at first base. (Obligatory: the *point* of that trade would be to get a great prospect from the Padres. But *part* of it would be to see if you can get any value out of Hosmer going forward, because he does still hit righties well enough.)