Jazz Chisholm Jr. left Sunday night’s win over the Dodgers with the kind of line that says everything and nothing at once. In the postgame scrum, after he had helped decide the game, he said he’s “sucked all season”.
That wasn’t a plea for reassurance. It was Chisholm being blunt about a year that has gone sideways in a hurry.
The Yankees came into the season dreaming on a massive breakout - 50 homers, 50 steals, the whole loud, electric package - and while that target always felt ambitious, the idea of Chisholm becoming a middle-of-the-order force was supposed to be part of the payoff. Instead, he has spent much of the year chasing pitches, missing damage spots and looking lost in situations where the Yankees needed a clean at-bat.
The most glaring version of that showed up in the fifth inning Sunday, when he came up with the bases loaded and nobody out and immediately lifted a first-pitch popout. It was the kind of plate appearance that can drain a game fast. For Chisholm, it fit a season-long pattern: he’s hitting .163 in 97 plate appearances with runners in scoring position.
And yet, that same player keeps showing up when the game gets tight and ugly.
In high-leverage plate appearances in late-and-close games, Chisholm has been one of the Yankees’ best bats. He’s hitting .321 with a 1.040 OPS in 58 such plate appearances, with four home runs.
The biggest one came Sunday night, when he delivered the game-winner. That’s the contradiction with Chisholm this season: the at-bats that should feel hardest somehow keep turning into his best swings.
With a runner on second or third, he’s been one of the names opponents probably want to avoid most, right there with Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells. But in a tie game in the eighth, he can look like the best option on the board, and then do something entirely out of character, like driving an opposite-field rocket into the left-center bullpen.
There’s no tidy explanation for it. The Yankees just keep living with both versions of him.
That split has played out over and over again. Chisholm’s home run against Toronto on May 18 broke a tie in the seventh.
He beat Cleveland on the road in June with a solo homer. He beat Detroit on June 23, one day after lollipop gate.
He turned the series opener in Washington on its head right before the break. And on Sunday night, he delivered again to help salvage what had been a mess against Los Angeles.
The strange part is that his late-game heroics don’t seem to match the rest of his offensive profile. In ordinary run-producing spots, the approach has too often fallen apart. In the biggest moments, though, he keeps finding a way to matter.
That’s why Chisholm feels like such a perfect snapshot of this Yankees season. The team has been wildly unreliable in standard pressure situations, and yet it still owns 16 wins when tied or trailing in the eighth inning or later, the most in MLB. That number doesn’t even include two recent comeback efforts - Sunday night at Fenway and the home finale with Detroit - that they eventually lost, with Chisholm helping fuel the Tigers game by relentlessly chasing stolen bases until the tying run was taken.
The Yankees have stayed in strong position in the AL despite getting hit hard by several players who were supposed to be central pieces. Chisholm has been one of the clearest examples of that mess: a player who has swung himself out of rallies all season, then rescued a handful of games almost single-handedly. That’s the contradiction, and it’s become one of the defining features of a season that has been equal parts frustrating and bizarre.
In Other News...
Yankees Suddenly Face Three Roster Calls They Cant Put Off
After splitting a doubleheader with the Dodgers, the Yankees are still left sorting through a roster that looks increasingly out of balance. The loss in the opener and win in the nightcap did little to quiet the bigger questions around how the club should handle a few of its most pressing personnel decisions, especially with the seasons margin for error shrinking.
One of the louder arguments is in the bullpen, where Camilo Dovals place has become a real talking point after he slid to the bottom of the hierarchy and no longer has minor-league options to work with. There is also growing pressure to rethink the outfield mix and the infield alignment, with Jasson Domnguez and Jazz Chisholm Jr. both viewed as candidates for different roles as the Yankees try to stabilize a roster that still feels like it is searching for answers. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees May Have Backed The Wrong Shortstop For Too Long
Anthony Volpes hold on the Yankees shortstop job is starting to look less secure by the day, and the conversation around him has shifted from patience to pressure. What once felt like a long-term bet now carries the feel of a decision the Yankees may need to revisit before the trade deadline, especially with the position carrying so much weight for a club trying to stay on track.
Jos Caballero is pushing for more opportunities, George Lombard Jr. is knocking on the door, and the Yankees can no longer treat the spot as settled just because they once invested heavily in Volpe. If the front office keeps standing pat, it will not just be Volpe under the microscope, but also the scouts, executives and Brian Cashman for how long they stayed committed to a plan that may be overdue for a hard look. [Read more 🡒]
Dodgers Just Pushed The Yankees Toward A Brutal Trade Deadline Choice
The Yankees offense has been forced to live without Aaron Judge, and the uncertainty around Giancarlo Stanton has only made the lineup feel thinner as the trade deadline approaches. In that kind of spot, Brian Cashman is not just shopping for upgrades, he is weighing how much of the current roster he can afford to move in order to patch the holes that have opened up around the team.
Pitching depth may be the easiest place to create that kind of flexibility, especially with several starters working their way back from the injured list. If the rotation gets healthier in the coming weeks, the Yankees could find themselves with more arms than spots, which is exactly the sort of surplus that can be turned into help elsewhere. The harder question is whether that help has to come from a part of the roster the club would rather keep intact. [Read more 🡒]