Welcome, friends. I hope you brought popcorn and soda, because it’s time for Part 2 of my impromptu review of the Yankees’ first base situation before Ben Rice arrived on the scene. In Part 1, we covered the decline phase of Mark Teixeira and the tragic fate of Greg Bird, but ended on a high note with Luke Voit’s magical 2018 run. Today, we’ll be covering 2019-2024. Without further ado, let’s remember some guys.
2019 – 2021: Voit’s truncated tenure, LeMahieu’s uncomfortable fit, and Rizzo’s introduction
As the 2019 season approached, all eyes were on Luke Voit. I guess hitting 14 home runs in 39 games the year prior has a way of heightening expectations. While Voit could not quite match that level, he had a very strong start to the year, hitting .277/.386/.497 with 16 home runs through June. Everyone in Yankee Universe was just about ready to crown him as the future at first base. However, as with Greg Bird, the injury bug would befall Voit time and time again.
First, on June 29 during the London Series against the Red Sox, Voit suffered an abdominal injury that sidelined him until July 13, forcing him to miss eight games. Then, on July 31, he was placed on the injured list yet again with a sports hernia. When he returned at the end of August, he simply wasn’t the same. Prior to the hernia, Voit’s wRC+ stood at a robust 132; post-injury, he only managed an 80 wRC+ over 94 plate appearances, with a paltry .138 ISO. Although his overall line (.263/.378/.464, 126 wRC+) was still strong thanks to his early-season performance, the way Voit’s season ended left a bad taste in many a fan’s mouth.
Fortunately, though, for 2019, the Yankees were able to weather Voit’s absences quite well thanks to two excellent backup options – DJ LeMahieu and Mike Ford. When Voit went down at the end of June, it was LeMahieu, along with the recently acquired Edwin Encarnación, who handled first base. Those of you who have followed the Yankees’ recent years might not remember LeMahieu so fondly, but in 2019, he was truly a force to be reckoned with, hitting .327/.375/.518 while handling multiple infield spots capably. With LeMahieu sliding over to first from second and third, the Yankees did not miss a beat offensively – in 135 plate appearances as a first baseman, LeMahieu hit a sparkling .338/.361/.531.
LeMahieu also saw time after Voit’s second IL stint, but this time, his first base partner was Mike Ford. A sleeper prospect who had posted strong OBPs in the Yankees’ system for many years prior, Ford was invited to spring training as a non-roster player, and had been assigned to Scranton to start the year before being called up in April when Greg Bird was placed on the IL. While he struggled in his initial April stretch, Voit’s second injury gave him another opening, and he sure made the most of it. In 84 August PAs, Ford hit eight homers with a .582 slugging percentage, good for a 121 wRC+. Between Ford and LeMahieu, first base was in good hands despite Luke Voit’s injuries and subsequent struggles, at least for 2019.
Coming into 2020, there was some uncertainty around how Voit would perform (although if that was your main preoccupation at the time, you should consider yourself lucky). However, Voit quickly silenced any doubters. In a pandemic-shortened season, Voit hit .277/.338/.610, and led the league with 22 dingers in just 234 PAs. Unfortunately, Mike Ford cratered, managing only a 37 wRC+ in 84 PAs. However, you don’t really have to worry that much about how your backup 1B is doing when your starter is running a 153 wRC+. Once again, Voit had shown that he was capable of being an elite player – the only question was whether he would be able to sustain that over a full year, and Yankeedom could not wait for that question to be answered in 2021.
So, the baseball gods being the bullies that they are, naturally it was time for Voit’s body to betray him again. On March 27, it was announced that he had partially torn his meniscus in his right knee and would undergo surgery. It wasn’t until May 11 that he would make his season debut, and just twelve games later, he landed on the IL again with an oblique strain, sidelining him for a month. Then, on July 11, Voit suffered a bone bruise, forcing him to miss yet another month. When all was said and done, Voit was only able to play 68 games, and while his 11 homers and 113 wRC+ weren’t terrible, it was a far cry from his peak form.
Unlike 2019, the 2021 Yankees’ backup options could not carry them. Fresh off winning the AL batting title, the magic was gone from LeMahieu’s bat, and he could only manage a 101 wRC+ – fine if you’re a slick defender at second and third, but inexcusable if you’re manning first. Ford could not bounce back from his awful 2020, hitting just .136 with three homers in his 21 games at first base. The Yankees tried throwing Jay Bruce and Chris Gittens at the wall, but they disintegrated upon impact. It was painfully clear that the Bombers did not have any in-house options.
So, the Yankees got creative. On July 29, they sent prospects Kevin Alcántara and Alexander Vizcaíno along with cash considerations to the Cubs for Anthony Rizzo. At the time, Rizzo was enduring the worst full season of his career since 2013, when he was still a budding major leaguer. At 31 years of age, it was abundantly clear that Rizzo had entered his decline phase. However, even a diminished Rizzo was head and shoulders above the Yankees’ other options at the time. He hit for a 115 wRC+ over 200 plate appearances with the Yanks, and coupled with Luke Voit’s struggles with injury, that was enough for Brian Cashman to hand him the keys to the first base job. On March 17, 2022, the Yankees signed Rizzo to a two-year, $32-million deal. A day later, they shipped Voit to the Padres for Justin Lange. Thus ended Luke Voit’s Bronx tenure – what an unceremonious end, given that it had started with such promise.
2022 – 2024: Rizzo falls victim to injuries, Yankees’ mismanagement; A new hope
Going into the 2022 season, there was some trepidation with Rizzo given his age and his performance in the prior year. However, Rizzo responded resoundingly with a resurgent year with the bat, hitting .224/.331/.480 (131 wRC+) with 32 homers in 548 plate appearances. Even though he was hampered by injuries, particularly in the second half of the season – first by back spasms, then by the aftereffects of an epidural injection gone wrong – Rizzo managed to be a stable presence at first base for the first time in what felt like forever. Indeed, his 117 games at 1B were the most by a Yankees first baseman since…Lyle Overbay’s 119 games in 2013. Man, that 2013 team sure was something.
In the offseason, Rizzo bet on himself, opting out of his deal and becoming a free agent. However, the Yankees weren’t going to let their first “real” 1B in nearly a decade slip away. They signed him to another two-year deal, this time for $40 million, and Yankees fans everywhere rejoiced. Then, as the 2023 season started, Rizzo did the unthinkable – he was even better than the year before. Through May 28, 2023, Rizzo hit .304/.376/.505, good for a 145 wRC+.
Why was I so specific about the date there? Because that was the day it all went south for Rizzo and the Yankees.
That day, during a pickoff attempt at first base, Fernando Tatis, Jr. rushed back to the bag, and his right hip collided squarely with the side of Rizzo’s head.
Hindsight is 20/20, but reviewing the video, it’s painfully clear that the play left Rizzo seriously disoriented. Watch the way he sluggishly rises to his full height, tries to tag Tatis again like he’s not sure where he is, and stumbles off towards second base like he’s had one too many beers. He left the game due to what was initially described as a “neck injury”, but even to the untrained eye, it seems quite obvious that Rizzo was suffering from a concussion.
Fortunately, the Yankees eventually reached the same conclusion. Unfortunately for Rizzo, it took fourty-six games for them to do so.
For more than two whole months, the Yankees kept on running Rizzo out, despite the fact that he was experiencing signs of post-concussion syndrome such as grogginess and fogginess, and the fact that his post-injury performance (a 43 wRC+ over 192 PAs) should have been cause for alarm in itself. Sure, he passed MLB’s initial concussion testing, but that’s no excuse for the Yankees to have continued to play Rizzo for as long as they did. For the record, in Chris Kirshner’s postmortem interview with Rizzo regarding the whole fiasco for The Athletic, Rizzo claimed that neither he nor the Yankees handled anything wrongly, explaining that he was hesitant to blame his struggles on the collision with Tatis because “we’re not bred to come up with excuses”.
I’m going to cut Rizzo some slack here. Although the “play through pain” mentality is just another example of how patriarchy harms men, I think it’s unrealistic to expect someone like Rizzo, who has spent nearly his entire life in a hyper-masculine, hyper-competitive field, to suddenly have a moment of clarity and concede that something wasn’t right. But I’m not inclined to extend the same courtesy to the Yankees. They have a responsibility to put their players’ health before anything else, especially for an issue as serious as this. Reading the Kirshner interview, it seemed like the team waited for Rizzo to come forward to conduct additional testing, but the onus should be on the team to look out for their players.
The hope for 2024 was that Rizzo would able to recover from this ordeal and return to his career norms. That did not happen. Limited to 92 games due to a mid-June arm fracture that sidelined him until September, Rizzo hit a pitiful .228/.301/.335 (85 wRC+). Somehow, the Yankees saw enough in him to stick with him at first base in the playoffs, but it did not end well, both offensively (he went 2-for-16 in the World Series) and defensively. After the season ended, the Yankees declined his $17 million option, making him a free agent. He went unsigned, and in September 2025, he officially announced his retirement.
However, all was not lost for the Yankees. A certain unheralded prospect made his debut in 2024. Always old for his level, no one expected much of him, but he burst on to the scene, becoming the first Yankees rookie to dinger thrice in one game. And though a hellacious slump prompted the Yankees to send him down to Scranton in late August, his peripherals suggested that he was much better than the back of his baseball card. His name was Ben Rice, and I guess you all know what happened next.
So, that concludes our trip to the pre-Rice era. The moral of the story is: don’t take what Rice is doing now for granted. Savor every moment. I hope he’s able to enjoy a long, healthy career, but you just don’t know. And if Rice ever finds himself in a slump, remember this article and remind yourself that it could always be worse.
