SAN DIEGO - Jazz Chisholm Jr. sat out the Yankees’ 5-1 win over the Padres at Petco Park on Sunday, but the conversation around him had little to do with one night off.
It was about where he wants to be next, and he made that part plain.
“I want to stay a Yankee, by any means kind of,” Chisholm told Randy Miller of NJ.com.
That message came against a backdrop that has made his situation harder to read. Entering Sunday, MLB’s official numbers had Chisholm at .229 with a .310 on-base percentage and a .403 slugging percentage, along with 19 home runs and 55 RBIs.
His 40 stolen bases still led the American League. The Yankees were 81-61, four games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East and holding the top wild-card spot with 20 games left.
Chisholm is also nearing the end of his Yankees run. He is due $10.2 million in 2026, which means the decision on what happens after that is getting closer even while New York is focused on October.
That makes the contrast with last season impossible to ignore. Chisholm closed 2025 with 31 home runs and 31 stolen bases, becoming the fourth player in Yankees history to post a 30-30 season.
That kind of production set up bigger expectations. This year has delivered the speed, but not nearly the same punch at the plate.
Still, Chisholm wasn’t talking like a player looking elsewhere. He said the Bronx fits him.
“This is the best place for me, the Yankees,” Chisholm said.
The bigger twist is that the sides have not been in active extension talks. Chisholm said the last real conversation about his future came in spring training and didn’t lead anywhere.
“Not since spring,” he said.
When asked what happened then, he said the message from the organization was straightforward.
“It was just like, ‘We don’t do extensions.'”
He also said his interaction with general manager Brian Cashman was not a formal sit-down.
“I would not say I reached out,” he added. “It was more of a mutual thing.
It was me walking around saying something to Cash. He walked past me.”
There’s also the labor backdrop looming over everything. The collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, and a lockout is widely expected to follow quickly. Chisholm has already been thinking through the timing, pointing out that free agents can sign before the lockout begins.
“Free agents can sign before that lockout happens,” he said.
He then raised the kind of question that could complicate any decision on a one-year qualifying offer.
“Let’s say I do sign a qualifying offer and we lose the whole season in a lockout?” Chisholm asked. “Do I get that money or am I a free agent in a new CBA?”
That path has already played out in the Yankees clubhouse. Trent Grisham accepted New York’s $22.025 million qualifying offer last winter instead of testing a market projected in the three-year, $54 million to four-year, $66 million range. The Yankees made that move partly because they were concerned another team could outbid them for Cody Bellinger.
If Chisholm does leave, he already has a team in mind. He spoke warmly about the Phillies, in part because of Don Mattingly. The Yankees legend managed Chisholm in Miami from 2020 to 2022 and could be back in Philadelphia in 2027.
“Me and Donny are like this,” Chisholm told while holding his thumb and index finger a sliver apart to emphasize just how small the margin was. “Me and his son, his wife … all of us are tight.
I love Don Mattingly. The Phillies got (Kyle) Schwarber and (Bryce) Harper.
They got pitching. They got Arraez at second base.
They’re trying to win for sure.”
The numbers make his case more complicated than they would have been a year ago. In 2025, Chisholm hit .242/.332/.481 with 31 home runs, 80 RBIs and 31 stolen bases in 130 games, according to MLB. That was the season that made him one of the few Yankees ever to reach 30 homers and 30 steals.
This year, the offense has taken a step back. His .713 OPS is 100 points lower than last season’s .813.
He has 19 home runs instead of 31. But his stolen-base total has climbed to 40, nine more than he had last year, and he’s done it in just two additional games.
That leaves the Yankees weighing a player whose value hasn’t disappeared, but has become harder to price.
For Chisholm, the focus is still on the field and the postseason chase.
“The only thing that matters is helping the Yankees win the World Series,” he said. “That’s what I’m thinking about. That’s what I want.”
He also made it clear that if New York is going to keep him around, it may need to be after he finishes strong.
“Of course, of course,” he replied to a question if he is ready to pass on long-term deals for another Yankees year. “I want to be in New York, so definitely.
But I think the only way they send that is if the playoffs come and I play super. If I do that …”
The thought trailed off there, and so does the immediate answer on his future.
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