Rizzo (hand) out for ALDS, confident in return for potential ALCS

NEW YORK -- Anthony Rizzo wanted to give it a go for the Yankees in the American League Division Series against the Royals that starts Saturday. But on the eve of Game 1, the veteran first baseman acknowledged he won’t be healthy enough to make the roster.

That said, Rizzo expressed confidence he will be ready if the Bombers advance to the AL Championship Series.

Rizzo fractured the fourth and fifth fingers of his right hand after being hit by a pitch from the Pirates’ Ryan Borucki on Sept. 28 against the Pirates.

“I had to be honest with myself, and it's tough,” said Rizzo. “But this team has a different aura to it right now, and I’m confident that, hopefully in the next round, I can join them.”

Ben Rice, who spent an extended time earlier in the season filling in when Rizzo missed 62 games with a right forearm fracture, is likely to see the bulk of the action at first base in the Division Series. In 50 games and 178 plate appearances, Rice slashed .171/.264/.349 with seven homers and 23 RBIs.

Oswaldo Cabrera is also a starting option at first base, where Trent Grisham and Jon Berti have also taken grounders recently.

Rizzo, the ultimate teammate who won a World Series with the 2016 Cubs, looks forward to providing guidance for whomever is standing in for him.

“Just talking to them about different scenarios, bunt scenarios, different plays, pickoffs,” said Rizzo. “I'm an open book. … I don’t know what the roster looks like yet, but whoever it is is more than capable of manning that down and everyone has each other's back, so I’m definitely confident.”

What makes Rizzo confident he can make it back for the ALCS, which is scheduled to start on Oct. 14?

“Today was the first day I tried to switch my brain to just playing and gutting through it,” said Rizzo. “Everyone kept asking me, ‘What do you think?’ And it was like, I don't know. I haven't tried it yet. So just going through [putting some] stuff in my glove, catching, I hit a little bit. Obviously it wasn’t nearly to what a big league standard is but it felt a lot better than I expected. It’s encouraging, but it's just not to the point where it could be something that I think I could help this team with.”

Rizzo noticed an improvement while playing catch on Friday.

“You don’t really know what fingers you squeeze within your glove until you have two broken ones,” Rizzo said. “I said today when I'm squeezing, I'm like, that felt good. I definitely manipulated my glove. Figured out wrapping and stuff, so I feel confident with all that, but just catching balls at a high velocity definitely hurts more than it should. Hopefully talking to the doctors, within another 10 days, it will feel significantly better and I can contribute.”

If this was the regular season, Rizzo said he would probably miss three to four weeks. But during the playoffs, he would be willing to experience more pain to be there for his teammates.

“At this time of the year, no one is 100 percent,” said Rizzo. “I’ll be 100 percent with whatever I have. I feel confident with whatever I have to give to that. At this point, it’s just not there. I do feel confident that in the ALCS, I’ll be ready to contribute.”