Close friends Anthony Rizzo and Aaron Judge re-signed with the Yankees this offseason.
Brad Penner/USA Today Sports
How Anthony Rizzo tried to convince Aaron Judge to re-sign with Yankees? He used the gravitational force of the heart to man’s best friend.
“I sent him two pictures of our dogs together—because we both have dachshunds—saying, ‘We can’t keep them apart!'” Rizzo said. Joe book Podcast, With Me and Joe Maddon, ex Cubs Administration.
Rizzo said he wasn’t sure Judge would return to the Yankees until today The judge agreed to a nine-year, $360 million deal.
“I wasn’t recruiting as hard as you think,” said Rizzo. “[Wife] Emily and I know him and [Judge’s wife] Sam really well from last year he just got close. It was really, “What would make you happy? Would you be A, B, C, D? Is that here, there, or somewhere else?” And kind of being more of a friend throughout the process than a teammate.
Thinking of Zero Hour when everything hit the fan, I was a little anxious as anyone. But also, by saying, “You have to do what makes you happy and what will be best for you in the end.”
The judge made his decision on December 7. Rizzo re-signed with the Yankees on November 15, Agree to a two-year, $34 million contractBut not before speaking to the judge.
“I had some conversations with the judge, [to] You see what he was thinking, obviously,” said Rizzo. “Emily and I, we decided our top priority was to stay in New York, and if that was an option early on, we’d jump on it as long as everything fit, and we got it.”
Rizzo hit 32 home runs last season, the most by a left-handed Yankees hitter in a decade (Robinson Cano in 2012). He is one of the pioneers of how the prevalence of defensive turnovers has changed the game. Thanks in part to seeing four-man outfields and turnovers, Rizzo hit . 216 when he put the ball into play last season—the lowest mark of his career. Rizzo had a turnaround 83% of the time last season, up from 35% in 2015.
In 2015, when Rizzo hit the floors or line drives to the side of the draw, his BABIP was .342. Those same batters last season yielded a . 232 BABIP. Four player alignments, shield shifts and players positioned on the outside turf are banned next season.
“I know these people in the front office, [with] Their analytics, they’ll have their ways of moving their outfield players and whatnot,” Rizzo said [more] Useful than multiplying by… I think I’ve had a hundred games with four outsiders. It certainly still works for all lefties, I know that.”
Rizzo said the introduction of the pitch timer would affect veteran hitters more than the ban on shifts. With the bases empty, batters must be ready to hit with eight seconds remaining on the 15-second outfield timer. Rizzo’s average time between no-bases pitches last season, adjusted for pitch timer protocols, was 14 seconds, which ranked among the slowest 6% of batters.
“Honestly, I think the biggest adjustment for us in the major leagues is going to be pitch hour, in terms of hitting wise,” he said. “Just because a lot of us have set routines. You know, you get out of the box, you reset your hitting gloves…to where I noticed last year, especially at the end of last year when a lot of the guys were called up from Triple A, guys are ready to go.” And you’re feeling the rush and the rush and the rush. This offseason will definitely be an adjustment that I do just to make sure after you swing, you immediately come back to reset a little bit faster than you did in the past.”
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