Jazz Chisholm arrived at Yankee Stadium on Monday with a little housekeeping first, sorting through his stash of spikes and tennis shoes before turning to the bigger question hanging over the Yankees’ Wild Card Series plans.
Would he start Game 1?
“Yeah,” Chisholm said.
That answer came after Aaron Boone said he is weighing a platoon decision between Chisholm, a left-handed hitter, and righty Anthony Volpe against a Red Sox pitching plan that includes two left-handers in the best-of-three series: rookie Payton Tolle in Tuesday night’s opener and Ranger Suarez if there is a Game 3 on Thursday night.
If Chisholm is left on the bench, he made it clear he won’t be thrilled.
“Who wouldn’t be?” he said.
“As a competitor, who wouldn’t be? It’s the playoffs.
You want to play.”
Chisholm also said he would be willing to make his case directly to Boone.
“I always do that,” he said. “No matter what it is, I’ve always been like that.
I’ve never been a person to shy away from a hard conversation with anybody, even if I’m in the wrong. So, yeah.”
By late Monday afternoon, though, that conversation still hadn’t happened.
“No, not yet,” he said. “I don’t think we had that talk yet, but I feel like Boonie will come up to me and let me know what’s going on before it’s put out there, which I always respect out of him. He’s always been good on that side.”
Boone said Volpe has made himself part of the discussion, especially after handling second base during Chisholm’s 12-day IL stint with a bruised thumb. In 10 games there, including nine starts, Volpe made two errors.
“Volpe’s very much in play,” Boone said. “The platoon stuff is in play there. Obviously Jazz is just coming back from the thumb.”
Volpe’s numbers against both handednesses are in the mix as well. He hit .238 with a .637 OPS in 146 plate appearances against righties and .256 with a .687 OPS in 100 plate appearances against lefties.
Chisholm’s split is more pronounced. Against right-handers, he hit .238 with 14 homers, 34 RBI, 101 strikeouts in 372 at-bats and a .738 OPS. Against lefties, he hit .218 with five homers, 21 RBI, 56 strikeouts in 160 plate appearances and a .650 OPS.
Since coming off the IL last week, Chisholm has gone 2-for-10 in three games. Boone said he would have liked to get him a little more work, but the weather got in the way.
“I would have liked another one or two, but the weather didn’t really cooperate this weekend,” Boone said. “Anthony’s put himself very much in the mix to be a part of the equation.”
Chisholm said the time away came at the wrong moment, because he had been swinging well before the thumb injury interrupted his run. He said he’s still trying to get back to that timing, but pointed to his .357 average over 18 games since Aug. 22 as a reason for optimism.
“I just keep on working hard every day and get just going back to the routine that had me on the hot stretch I was right before I got hurt,” he said. “Just keep on doing that every day. It just comes.”
For Chisholm, the larger goal hasn’t changed.
“For everybody, not just not only just me,” he said. “To go out there and win a World Series, that’s all you want to do.
That’s the main goal from the beginning of the seaso, so I wouldn’t say erase everything that happened in the season; I would more say this is what we were building up for. This is what we were working all that time for.”
Chisholm finished the season hitting .231 with 19 homers, 55 RBI, 41 steals and a .711 OPS in 137 games. Last year, he hit .242 with 31 homers, 80 RBI, 31 steals and an .825 OPS in 130 games.
“The ups and downs were just for this moment to go out there and remember what were the downs, what were the ups,” Chisholm said.
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