Jazz Chisholm still believes he can be back for the Yankees’ final homestand, even if the sprained right thumb that landed him on the 10-day injured list has him temporarily stuck in a cast.
The injury happened Tuesday night on a headfirst slide into second base in the eighth inning, a play Chisholm thought was going to be overturned. His first concern was the replay challenge, not the thumb he jammed into the base. He stayed in the game and kept playing through the pain, then learned later that the damage was more serious than he realized.
“When it first happened, it just went completely numb,” Chisholm said. “I didn’t have feeling in it.”
He didn’t fully understand what was wrong until the ninth inning, when he charged a groundball and tried to make a throw to first.
“I didn’t know how bad it was until I tried to throw the baseball and couldn’t feel the ball,” Chisholm said.
After hoping the injury would improve overnight, Chisholm went for an MRI the next morning. The scan showed the sprain, and the diagnosis came with a frustrating order: no baseball activities for seven to 10 days.
Chisholm’s IL stint began Thursday and is retroactive to Wednesday, and the cast covering the injured thumb and the outside of his hand means he has no real choice but to back off baseball work. Still, he plans to keep doing everything else he can.
“I’m still gonna be moving around, running, lifting some weights with my own arm, stretching, doing a lot of stuff. I’ll keep my body ready,” he said.
The regular season ends Sept. 27, and Chisholm is aiming for a return before then - specifically for the Yankees’ final homestand, which starts Tuesday, Sept. 22, with four games in three days against the first-place Rays before a weekend series against the Orioles.
“Yeah, whenever they come back home,” Chisholm said.
That timeline depends on how quickly the cast comes off and how fast he can ramp back up. Chisholm said the cast won’t be removed for a week to 10 days, and then he’ll need a few more days before he’s ready to hit and throw again.
If it comes off on day 10, he figures he’ll still have enough time to get ready for Sept. 22.
“I’m confident in my healing abilities,” he said.
Aaron Boone isn’t ruling it out. The Yankees manager pointed to Chisholm’s track record of bouncing back ahead of schedule in recent seasons.
“We’ll see as he gets ramped up (but) he does have a history of being a fast healer,” Boone said. “There’s some truth to that.
You look at his injury history, and he’s kind of beat the timeline every time. But we’ll listen to the thumb, listen to the body and see how he how he recovers.”
For now, Anthony Volpe is the one filling in. Back from Triple-A, he was in Thursday’s lineup for his first career start at second base. Volpe shifted from shortstop to second after being optioned in early August, and he handled the new spot well, committing just one error in 17 games there.
He also hit for average and power during his minor league stint, giving Boone another reason to feel good about the option in the meantime. Jose Caballero could also be part of the mix at second while Chisholm is out.
“As for Anthony, he’s done a great job down in Triple-A really just working on a lot of things,” Boone said. “Adding the position flexibility to his game, he’s done a really good job on the defensive side and has been swinging the bat incredibly well now for a while. So I’m excited to get him back up here and get him back in there.”
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