This story was excerpted from Bryan Hoch’s Yankees Beat publication. To learn the complete publication, click on right here. And subscribe to get it often in your inbox.
NEW YORK — Aaron Decide’s first standing ovation of 2026 got here in a crowded Manhattan ballroom on Saturday night, applause following a celebratory introduction from a well-known hype man — former teammate Anthony Rizzo.
Decide and Rizzo sat aspect by aspect all through the one hundred and first dinner held by the New York chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Affiliation of America, with Decide in attendance to obtain his American League Most Beneficial Participant Award and the chapter’s “Toast of the City” honor.
“He’s probably the most particular individual I’ve ever been round,” Rizzo stated. “Enjoying in New York is completely different, as everybody is aware of. If you put the pinstripes on, you’re going to have good occasions and dangerous occasions. They get heavy at occasions.
“… The lights shine brighter. The stress is heavier. Each second is magnified. Not everyone is constructed for this stage. You’ve seen a number of guys fold underneath these huge lights. What he does every single day together with his selfless management is one thing that I like.”
Decide opened his remarks by thanking his spouse, Samantha, saying he positively wouldn’t be a three-time MVP with out her love and assist.
“You’re my hitting coach after I want you, my therapist after I want you,” Decide stated. “And giving me the best present of all, which is our lovely daughter, Nora. It’s been unbelievable to be a father and what that’s carried out for our life. It doesn’t matter if I’m 4-for-4 or 0-for-4 — coming house and seeing their smiling faces, that’s what it’s all about.”
Decide didn’t drag many hitless performances again to the residence in 2025. In 152 video games, he compiled a slash line of .331/.457/.688 with 53 house runs and 114 RBIs, posting a Main League-best 215 OPS+ whereas turning into the tallest participant ever to log a batting title.
“I’ll communicate for him, as a result of I do know he gained’t,” Rizzo stated. “I feel the one he’s most likely most pleased with is that .331 common. There’s no low-cost hits there. There’s no infield hits. These are all hits the exhausting means, and the pitching is simply getting higher.”
In describing the starvation that continues to gas his success, Decide recalled a quote from his father, Wayne, who typically instructed him: “If what you probably did yesterday nonetheless appears huge right this moment, then you definately haven’t carried out something right this moment.”
“It actually sticks with me,” Decide stated. “It doesn’t matter in the event you pitched a whole recreation shutout or went 4-for-4 the evening earlier than. It’s previously. It’s about what you are able to do right this moment, the way you present up right this moment and how one can be higher right this moment to your teammates and everyone round you.”
Decide concluded by thanking the followers.
“Getting an opportunity to characterize not solely the Yankees however the metropolis of New York, it comes with excessive requirements,” Decide stated. “You anticipate quite a bit. You demand quite a bit. I feel that’s what brings one of the best out in all of us, and brings one of the best out in me.
“So I simply wish to thanks guys. Quite a lot of you guys save as much as come to 1 recreation to look at us play, watch me play. That’s what it’s about. I wish to offer you guys one of the best and placed on a present for you.”
