Lower than a 12 months in the past, Anthony Rizzo began each sport of the World Collection for the Yankees, taking part in by way of two damaged fingers for an opportunity at a championship.
These proved to be Rizzo’s last video games.
The primary baseman is retiring after 14 MLB seasons with the San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs and Yankees, he introduced Wednesday.
“This game gave me everything,” Rizzo wrote on Instagram. “14 years later, I’m retiring with nothing but gratitude.”
Rizzo, 36, was a three-time All-Star, a four-time Gold Glove winner and a Silver Slugger recipient.
He batted .261 with 303 dwelling runs, 965 RBI and an .828 OPS, whereas his 222 hit-by-pitches rank eighth in MLB historical past.
Rizzo is about to formally retire as a member of the Cubs, with whom he spent 10 seasons and was a part of the curse-breaking 2016 staff that ended Chicago’s unprecedented 108-year championship drought.
The Cubs will honor Rizzo with a ceremony Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Subject, then identify him a staff ambassador.
Initially drafted by the Boston Purple Sox in 2007, Rizzo was traded as a minor-league prospect to the Padres in a deal for Adrián González three years later. Rizzo made his MLB debut with San Diego in 2011, then was traded to the Cubs throughout the next offseason.
Rizzo made a reputation for himself with Chicago as a part of a younger core that additionally included Kris Bryant, Javier Baez and Kyle Schwarber.
He earned three consecutive top-10 finishes in Nationwide League MVP voting from 2014-16, together with back-to-back fourth-place finishes in 2015 and 2016.
Rizzo was the chief of that 2016 staff that received an instant-classic World Collection over Cleveland in seven video games. He batted .277 with three dwelling runs and 10 RBI in that World Collection and caught the ultimate out on a throw to first base, after which he shot each arms into the air in a prevailing picture.
The lefty-swinging Rizzo ranks sixth in dwelling runs (242), thirteenth in RBI (784) and nineteenth in hits (1,311) in Cubs historical past.
The Yankees acquired Rizzo in a midseason commerce in 2021, and he would go on to spend his last three and a half seasons in pinstripes.
In 2022, Rizzo matched a profession excessive with 32 dwelling runs — a mark he hit 4 instances. He typically supplied lineup safety for the righty-swinging Aaron Decide, with whom he grew to become shut buddies.
Rizzo hit .234 with 60 dwelling runs and a .735 OPS in 370 video games with the Yankees, although accidents derailed the latter a part of his profession.
He missed greater than two months in 2024 after one other first-base collision left him with a fractured forearm. He then suffered two damaged fingers on his proper hand when he was hit by a pitch on the second-to-last day of the common season.
Rizzo didn’t seem within the ALDS final 12 months, however he returned for the ALCS and World Collection and hit .267 with a .421 on-base share in 10 playoff video games.
“I love playing here,” Rizzo mentioned forward of Recreation 4 of the World Collection. “I love being a Yankee. I love what comes with it. I love the standard that has been set here from all the generations, the great Yankees in the past. Yeah, this could very well be [it]. I’m a realist. I’m not naive to it. But I think all that will shape out when the time is right.”
The Yankees declined Rizzo’s $17 million choice final offseason, making him a free agent, and he didn’t play this 12 months.
He was again at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday evening, the place he sat within the stands to observe his former membership face the Detroit Tigers and one other ex-Yankee in Gleyber Torres.
“Thank you for everything, Rizzo,” the Yankees wrote Wednesday on Instagram.
Initially Revealed: September 10, 2025 at 11:00 AM EDT
