Jazz Chisholm Jr. won’t like the Yankees’ call for Game 1, and the lineup card they rolled out against Boston’s Payton Tolle makes that plain.
About 4.5 hours before first pitch, the Yankees revealed a playoff batting order that leaves Chisholm on the bench, along with Ryan McMahon and trade-deadline pickup Luis Garcia Jr. That came roughly 24 hours after Chisholm was blunt about how he’d react if he wasn’t in the starting nine for the opener, the same spot he occupied on the bench last season against Garrett Crochet.
“'Yeah,' [Chisholm told The Athletic ], adding that he would be ticked off if he doesn’t [get the nod].
'Who wouldn’t be?' he said.
'As a competitor, who wouldn’t be? It’s the playoffs.
You want to play.'"
The decision is especially striking for Chisholm, who pushed through the final stretch of the season to get back from the IL. Instead of being locked in as a starter, he’ll open the series in reserve.
The Yankees also went in a different direction at third base, starting Amed Rosario there and batting him sixth. That choice brings its own risk. Rosario was the man on the roster, or close to it, and the Yankees are leaning on him in a spot where the margin for error is thin.
There is some logic to the move. The Yankees brought Rosario back to punish lefties, and that’s the lane they’re trusting him to handle here. But this season has not matched the version of that plan they had in 2025, when Rosario broke a scoreless tie in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series against Connelly Early.
The numbers tell the story. Against right-handers this year, Rosario hit .295 with five home runs in 84 plate appearances.
Against lefties, he batted .208 in 160 plate appearances with five more homers. His OPS dropped from .833 to .606 against the side he’s supposed to handle best.
The lineup also stands out because of what the Yankees did not do. Defense matters in October, and one version of the alignment could have had Volpe at third and Chisholm up the middle. Instead, the Yankees chose Rosario at third and kept Chisholm out of the starting group.
That makes the Game 1 card a bold bet, and not just because of the names left out. The Yankees already took one major swing by starting Cam Schlittler over Max Fried in the opener. Now they’re asking Rosario to hold up at third in a playoff game that can turn fast.
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