ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Yankees had been stuck in a miserable rut, and Thursday at Tropicana Field looked like another night headed for the same dead end. Then Jazz Chisholm stood up before the game and cut through all the noise.
“Enough is enough, we’re better than this,” Chisholm said. “We have to wake up.”
According to teammate Max Schuemann, that message hit home. The Yankees responded by exploding for a 12-4 win over the Rays, chasing Drew Rasmussen after just 2 1/3 innings.
Rasmussen had blanked them over 13 innings earlier this season, so this was no small turnaround. It was also the first time in 22 games the Yankees scored more than five runs, and every one of their nine starters either scored or drove in a run.
That kind of outburst was badly needed. New York had gone 5-15 through Wednesday, making it the majors’ worst team since June 18.
Over that span, the Yankees managed only 56 runs, the fewest in baseball. A 3.5-game lead in the AL East had turned into a five-game deficit, and even with the calendar still well short of October, Thursday felt like a crossroads.
Chisholm, one of the club’s most polarizing players, ended up being the voice that snapped the group out of it. He can look like a five-tool star one day and a headache for Aaron Boone the next, but on this night the Yankees fed off his energy.
“It was good to hear him speak and say what he was thinking at the moment,” Schuemann said. “I feel like it really brought the guys together. I feel that Jazz brought that energy in the game.”
Chisholm didn’t act like someone trying to polish a rough edge off a bad season. He was blunt about his own struggles, too.
“Have you seen my at-bats? I’ve been terrible,” Chisholm said in a conversation on Wednesday.
“I didn’t even think I was that good last year (in a 30-home run, 30-stolen base season). I knew I could do better, so I know this year (.221 average, 12 home runs) is pretty bad.”
There’s still time for Chisholm to turn things around, and the same goes for the Yankees, who still believe they can be a force in the second half. But the last three weeks have been brutal, and nobody in the organization is pretending otherwise.
That’s why Brian Cashman’s appearance in Tampa drew attention. General managers don’t usually show up unannounced for road games, and when they do, people notice. Given the state of the Yankees’ slump, the optics alone would have sent social media into a frenzy if the visit had been framed differently.
Cashman was there because of the upcoming amateur draft, with he and his scouting staff meeting all week at the club’s Florida headquarters in Tampa. Still, he held an unscheduled press conference and backed Boone without hesitation.
“He does a great job,” Cashman said. “I think he’s a very hard worker, very well connected.
I think he’s prepared. I think he’s pulling every lever he possibly can.
Nothing more than I’ve said before.”
Cashman also stood behind hitting instructor James Rowson, who could have been an easy target after the Yankees’ prolonged offensive drought. Cashman said he has fired only one coach during the regular season, when Dillon Lawson was dismissed in 2023, and Rowson wasn’t in danger.
“James is a very accomplished hitting coach,” Cashman said. “Our hitting group is very good at what they do.
Our players are very good at what they do. Just not playing well right now.
That’s just the honest assessment.”
The bigger issue, of course, is Aaron Judge. The Yankees are still banking on their captain returning this season and becoming the force who has already won three MVP awards.
His fractured rib will be reimaged during the All-Star break, which at least marks progress. But the team does not expect the injury to be fully resolved yet.
At best, Cashman said, Judge will be considered “healing.” Judge remains barred from any upper-body-related activity, even jogging, and there’s no clear timetable for his return.
“I think we’re anticipating and hopeful that it’s showing the healing process,” Cashman said. “The time frame, regardless of what the findings are going to show, is going to be coming from our medical team.
“I haven’t even bothered to ask that question because his current condition restricts him in a lot of different ways.”
“He should be asymptomatic before we turn him loose,” Cashman continued. “If he’s asymptomatic and not feeling anything and (the images are) showing healing, it’s probably appropriate to get him going again.”
Cashman didn’t offer a date, though the Yankees seem to have a best-case return in mind for mid-August. Whether they can hold on that long is the real question. Chisholm’s wake-up call helped for one night, but it can only carry them so far.
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