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First baseman Anthony Rizzo was dealt from the Chicago Cubs to the New York Yankees ahead of the 2021 MLB trade deadline. Mike S. breaks down the fantasy baseball impact of this move for both sides.
The 2021 MLB Trade Deadline was as wild as any in recent memory as dozens of players changed addresses with seemingly every team making some kind of move. The biggest deadline buyer may have been the New York Yankees. They were busy making deals to try and hunt down the Red Sox and Rays, 8.5 and seven games ahead of New York respectively, in the ultra-competitive A.L. East.
The Yankees made it clear they wanted to add left-handed power by acquiring first baseman Anthony Rizzo from the Cubs and outfielder Joey Gallo from the Rangers. In this space, we'll focus on Rizzo, who should see a nice bump in fantasy production moving from Chicago to New York while also enjoying a huge upgrade in the quality of pizza in his home city.
After reading up on Rizzo, check out our analysis on other deadline deals like Starling Marte to Oakland, Adam Frazier to San Diego, and Relief Pitchers in New Places.
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Stadium Gains
The most obvious upgrade for Rizzo is Yankee Stadium and the famous short porch in right field. Wrigley Field is a great hitter's park, but for lefty power hitters, nothing beats the Bronx as any fly ball hit decently hard to right has a chance to get out of the yard. According to Baseball Savant's park factor data from the last three seasons, Yankee Stadium ranks fifth for inflating home runs to left-handed batters where Wrigley Field was 17th. The Yankees lineup should also provide Rizzo with more RBI and run-scoring opportunities than he would've seen playing for the Cubs.
Rizzo should take advantage as he's having another strong season. Rizzo is sporting a career-best 43.4% hard-hit rate and his 91.1 MPH average exit velocity also represents a career-best. The 31-year-old is doing this with his usual elite plate-discipline metrics as his 15.7% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate are both well above league average.
His fly-ball rate is up nine percent from last season and he's among the best contact hitters in the game. Rizzo should love hitting at Yankee Stadium.
Left For The Big City
One of the primary reasons the Yankees are in third place four months into the season has been its over-reliance on right-handed bats. Brett Gardner (and his .196 batting average) is the only lefty with more than 100 plate appearances for New York this season and no Yankee is batting over .270 versus right-handed pitching. New York was supposed to have one of the best lineups coming into the season, but they've completely flopped versus the more common handedness. Check out the ugly numbers:
| Stat | vs RHP | MLB Rank |
| BA | .225 | 26th |
| wOBA | .305 | 19th |
| SLG | .376 | 27th |
| BB/K | 0.45 | 25th |
That's not what the Steinbrenner family shells out the big bucks for.
Enter Rizzo, who is sporting a .502 slugging percentage and a .878 OPS versus righties this season. In his first game with New York, Rizzo batted cleanup between Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton making it much harder for the opposition to bring in a tough righty to mow through the heart of the order, particularly when you factor in the three-batter minimum rule for relief pitchers.
Rizzo (and Gallo) immediately make the Yankees a more challenging matchup to game plan for which should ease the burden on D.J. LeMahieu, Judge, and Stanton who often find themselves facing the best righty reliever the other team has to offer in the late innings. Throw in an uptick in runs and RBI opportunities and every batter in the Yankees lineup that still has a starting job is a better fantasy option than they were last week.
Ins 'n Outs
As excited as fantasy managers should be about Rizzo in New York, he leaves a vacancy at first base in Chicago that should ensure Patrick Wisdom sees everyday playing time from here on out. The 29-year-old has filled in at both first base and third base for the Cubs and with both Rizzo and Kris Bryant out of town, Wisdom will have his chance to prove his worth as an everyday player.
Wisdom is batting a solid .268 this season, but he's slugging a healthy .605 with 16 homers in 56 games. Wisdom strikes out a ton, but when he hits the ball he hits the ball as he's sporting a 60 percent hard-hit rate and has a .558 xwOBA when he makes contact. Wisdom is a solid fantasy option for managers chasing homers down the stretch.
As for Luke Voit, he seems expendable in fantasy. The first baseman was supposed to be a big bat for New York this season, but he's got as many homers (3) as he has stints on the injured list. Voit is currently working his way back from a knee injury and could rejoin the Yankees next week, but he'll have a hard time taking playing time away from Rizzo, a four-time gold glove winner at the cold corner. Expect Voit to primarily DH, but the Yankees like to rotate other players into the DH spot to give them half a day off and Voit may not get enough playing time to justify a roster spot in standard-size fantasy leagues.
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