Jazz Chisholm’s two-homer game yesterday brings his number up since joining the Yankees to 14 in just 49 games, and over 150 games that would pace out to 42 home runs. He’s been one of their best players since landing in the Bronx, playing at a true star level and providing the team with the spark they were hoping for offensively. His swing is perfect for Yankee Stadium, his speed provides a new angle that the Yankees haven’t had in years, and he’s settled into being a strong defensive infielder as well.
The Yankees are in a transitional period with the Baby Bomber Era officially closed, and at 27 years old, is this just a mirage, or will Jazz Chisholm cement himself as a core star on this roster for the next 4-5 years?
Did the Yankees Finally Unlock Jazz Chisholm’s Star Upside?
Last season was Jazz Chisholm’s first time playing 140 or more games in a season, as his injuries often left him sidelined and incapable of putting together truly excellent seasons. The first time we saw Chisholm display superstar upside came in 2022, as he smashed 14 home runs with 22 steals in 60 games before his season was cut short in June. Had he played 150 games that year at that pace, he would have collected 35 homers with a 6.3 fWAR, and that would have certainly landed him MVP votes.
James Rowson was the bench coach for the Marlins that season, and when Jazz Chisholm was traded to the Yankees the two were able to immediately concoct a plan for him to put up big numbers. If they could increase Chisholm’s pull rate on batted balls in the air, they could convert his quick hands and loud power into more home runs, making him a middle-of-the-order threat instead of just another bat in a team’s lineup. As his pull rate increased dramatically, so did the SLG%, as the Yankees brought back the Jazz Chisholm who garnered darkhorse MVP hype after 2022.
Off to a fast start in 2025, he has three home runs in three games, continuing to be the slugging machine that the Yankees knew he could be when they traded for him at the deadline. The numbers with his new team are mind-boggling, it’s truly the kind of production that would catapult him into superstar conversations if he held it up over a full season. I don’t expect that to be the case though; claiming that someone is an 8 WAR player because of their most recent 49 games played isn’t a rational way to evaluate a player, but where will he end up settling?
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Projections don’t think he’s going to end this season with an 8 WAR season (shocker), but they do believe he’s going to be in that top 30 position player range. You could argue that Chisholm’s WAR would be greater if he put up a wRC+ in the 120-125 range since he posted a 4.0 fWAR with a 110 wRC+ last season, but that relies on defense and baserunning which can vary wildly from year to year. The other wrinkle in all of this is the torpedo bat, which Chisholm has adopted after using Anthony Volpe’s bat in Spring Training and having some success.
How much of an impact does this bat end up having on his swing? It’s not easy to tell with such a small sample size, as the data we have on the public side is dwarfed by the data analysts in the Yankees’ organization have collected. One could argue that the biggest driver for his success was the quality of opponents faced, as he clobbered low-velocity pitchers thrown out by Milwaukee in their depleted rotation. The Yankees saw more fastballs at or below 90 MPH than anyone in baseball this weekend, and it’s why I’m hesitant to conclude the bats are the only force behind the hot start.
Arguably the most important development from Jazz Chisholm’s hot start to his Yankee career is the production against left-handed pitching. Since being traded to the Yankees he has a .262/.343/.508 slash line and .345 xwOBA in those matchups, which could give Aaron Boone less to worry about when configuring his lineup against a left-handed starter. I don’t want to put too much stock into a 70 PA sample size, but it’s worth noting considering just how bad he was against LHP before.
Do the Yankees choose to extend Jazz Chisholm? They haven’t been as aggressive with extensions in recent years, but I think this is a greater possibility than some of their more recent candidates. They attempted to extend Aaron Judge before the two sides had to settle that in a stressful free agency, but someone like Gleyber Torres had zero chance of being extended even after a strong 2023 season. All of the reasons his weaknesses are strengths for Chisholm; the blazing speed and sure-handed glove at second base make him perfect for accumulating WAR and winning games.
The Yankees cannot afford to be the worst team in the league at running the bases without Juan Soto and Gerrit Cole, and they’ll need an elite defense to supplement a rotation that doesn’t have the firepower it did rolling into camp. Jazz Chisholm helps the Yankees on both fronts, and he might hit 30 home runs while doing so. That’s a player worth extending, someone you can bring to a free agent meeting to talk about why the Yankees are an organization you can improve with and win with.
Jazz Chisholm has been characterized as immature, over-the-top, and a distraction by some, but I see a confident player who has continued to find new ways to take his game to the next level. If healthy, he’s the kind of player you not only invest in, but someone who can become a real part of a new core in the Bronx thanks to his tantalizing play.