3 next moves New York Yankees need to make after bringing Anthony Rizzo back

Here are the three next moves that the New York Yankees need to make after bringing Anthony Rizzo back on a two-year deal.

The New York Yankees just made their first splash in MLB Free Agency by re-signing Anthony Rizzo to play first base. They just solidified one massive weak area on their team, but that doesn’t mean they are finished or anywhere near finished.

There are three moves that the Yankees must make in order to improve their team or even just maintain their team from 2022 to 2023.

The first move is more obvious than basically any move that must be made in recent MLB history.

1. Yankees need to re-sign potential AL MVP Aaron Judge

What can one say about Aaron Judge about why the Yankees should bring back Aaron no matter the cost? Well, I’ll try to make it short and sweet since there’s a litany of reasons as to why.

First, without Judge, the Yankees probably don’t make the playoffs. He was the sole reason they won so many games due to his late-inning clutch hits or home runs. The team would just be completely different without him. That’s the biggest indicator of how important a player is to a team when he’s truly irreplaceable.

Furthermore, he only set the American League home run record with 62 home runs. That broke Roger Maris’ record set in the 1960s. His WRC+ was an outstanding 207 while he led the team in nearly every offensive category. To make himself look even better, the giant 6-foot-7 Judge took over center field for most of the season. He more than held his own with a positive rating in centerfield from DRS, UZR, and OAA.

Judge is smack dab in his prime at 30 years old. Thanks to his hitting prowess and power, he’ll age gracefully at the plate well into his 30s. The likely American League MVP must be re-signed by the Yankees or this will be a failure of an offseason regardless of what else they do. Without Judge, I’m not sure this team sniffs past the Wild Card Round next year.