Yankees place Rizzo on IL due to headaches
The New York Yankees are placing star first baseman Anthony Rizzo on the 10-day injured list due to headaches, manager Aaron Boone announced Tuesday, according to Lindsey Adler of The Athletic.
Rizzo hasn't played since Aug. 31 because of recurring lower back pain and received an epidural on Sept. 2. But continued headaches - not back pain - prompted the IL stint.
The 33-year-old is undergoing additional tests to determine the cause of the headaches, according to Meredith Marakovits of YES Network.
"He's still under doctor's orders to rest," Boone said, per SNY. "There's at least gonna be a few day ramp-up (period) once we get him going, so we just gotta get him to that point."
Boone said "it's hard to tell" if Rizzo's headaches are side effects of the epidural, doctors are "trying to get their heads around" the cause. Boone said he hopes Rizzo will start doing baseball activities in a few days because right now "he just kind of can't do much."
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Rizzo has been a critical part of the Yankees' offense this season. The three-time All-Star owns an .832 OPS across 117 games and ranks second on the team behind Aaron Judge with 30 home runs.
He's the latest Yankees player to land on the IL amid a difficult second half for the AL East leaders. New York lost Andrew Benintendi to a hamate injury over the weekend and is also without utility player Matt Carpenter and starters Luis Severino and Nestor Cortes, among others.
The Yankees have selected first baseman Ronald Guzman from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in a corresponding move. New York will need to clear a 40-man roster spot for Guzman before Wednesday's doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins.