Major League Baseball

Yankees, Mets receive immediate payoff from a pair of former Cubs teammates

Updated Jul. 31, 2021 11:33 p.m. ET

As a baseball fan, it’s always exciting to see your team add a star player at the trade deadline. It’s even more thrilling if the new player immediately starts mashing homers.

That’s what’s happening for the two MLB franchises that call New York home.

Both the Yankees and the Mets made moves to stock up for playoff runs, and both received immediate dividends from those trades on Saturday.

First up was Anthony Rizzo, whom the Yankees picked up in the Chicago Cubs’ yard sale over the last few days. Rizzo, who was actually acquired on Thursday, the day before the deadline, crushed a 108.7 mph laser beam down the right-field line against the Miami Marlins on Saturday. If the Marlins didn’t play in a dome, the ball might still be rolling down the street.

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The 410-foot homer, which came leading off the seventh inning, pushed the Yankees’ lead to 4-2. That would be the final score as the Yanks, who have suddenly won four of their last five games, improved to 55-48.

Rizzo has now homered in both of his games for New York. In fact, he’s only made one out so far, going 4-for-5 with two home runs and three walks as a Yankee. For those of you who enjoy dabbling in small-sample-size theater, that’s a .800 batting average, .889 on-base percentage, 2.000 slugging percentage and 2.889 OPS.

Obviously, Rizzo will make a few outs as a Yankee at some point, but he’s done a great job ingratiating himself to Yankees fans so far.

Meanwhile, up in Queens, Rizzo’s former Cubs teammate Javier Báez was making a similarly splashy entrance in his debut for the Mets.

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Báez’s sixth-inning home run was a moonshot and actually traveled farther than Rizzo’s by two feet (412). It also drove in two runs to pull the Mets within 4-3 against the Cincinnati Reds.

While Báez didn’t have the same impact as Rizzo, going 1-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts, his home run ended up being crucial as the Mets, who lead the NL East at 55-48, eventually won 5-4 in 10 innings.

And with his exciting style of play both on offense and defense, it seems likely he’ll give Mets a show each time he takes the field whether he's hitting or not.

It should also be noted that Kris Bryant, another former Cub who was traded on Friday, is expected to make his debut for the San Francisco Giants on Sunday.

Here are some reactions to the play of Rizzo and Báez, who have wasted no time making a big impact with their New York teams.

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