In his return to Chicago, first baseman Anthony Rizzo compared the 2022 New York Yankees to the Cubs team that won the World Series in 2016.
At the trade deadline last year, first baseman Anthony Rizzo was traded by the Chicago Cubs to the New York Yankees. May 12, 2022 was Rizzo’s return to the Windy City, as the Yankees took on the White Sox for a four-game series.
When meeting with the media, Rizzo spoke fondly of his time with the Cubs. But then he spoke about the 2022 Yankees, saying they have a “very similar atmosphere” to the Cubs squad in 2016 that won the World Series to break their 108-year drought.
Anthony Rizzo said of his #Cubs tenure: “What we built was amazing.” He spoke warmly about both Chicago and New York with reporters today, noting that current #Yankees have a “very similar team atmosphere” to ‘16 Cubs. @MLBNetwork
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) May 12, 2022
Anthony Rizzo says 2022 Yankees have ‘very similar atmosphere’ as 2016 Cubs
The Yankees have been the talk of the offseason, as they did not go for any of the big-name free agents available, especially at shortstop. That was shocking, considering they were essentially bringing back the exact same roster that lost in the AL Wild Card game. Instead, their major move was making a deal with the Minnesota Twins for shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa and third baseman Josh Donaldson.
While the Yankees did make the deal with the Twins to bring in newer faces to the left side of their infield, their other big move was to bring back Rizzo on a two-year contract.
Thus far, the Yankees have been the best team in the American League. In fact, they entered their game against the White Sox on Thursday night with a 22-8 record, the best in all of MLB. In fact, history shows that whenever the Yankees have won at least 22 of the first 30 games of the season, they made it to the World Series.
Entering May 12, Rizzo was slashing .234/.354/.533 while recording nine home runs, 22 RBI and 25 hits through 30 games.
While Rizzo feels there are comparisons to be made between the 2022 Yankees and 2016 Cubs, there is still a lot of season to go.
