Jazz Chisholm Jr. Struggles: What It Means for His Yankee Future
A week ago, Jazz Chisholm Jr. lifted a 413-foot homer into the Yankee Stadium stands against Jacob deGrom.
It was the type of swing resembling his 2021 homer into the Citi Field upper deck off deGrom's 101-mph fastball.
Last week's swing off deGrom seems to be among the few highlights for Chisholm, who is a little over a month into his contract season and massively struggling with many things at the plate.
It is a long way between now and when Chisholm gets to the point of his agent negotiating his next contract whether it is with the Yankees or someone else, but the first 40-plus games may start to create too big of a hole for him to climb out of.
How is Jazz Chisholm Jr. performing this season?
In a word, the answer is not good.
Among the 21 qualified players at second base, his .201 average is last in the majors. His .603 OPS is third-worst only ahead of Washington's Nasim Nunez and Marcus Semien's .594 with the Mets, who boast many players towards the bottom of statistical leaderboards as evidenced by their unsightly 15-25 record.
Chisholm's 49 strikeouts are also the worst among qualified second basemen, and 31 of those are off non-fastballs, something often regarded as one of his weaknesses. Those are five fewer than Aaron Judge's total, but strikeouts can be tolerated with someone hitting 16 homers and up to 30 RBIs.
The only area among leaderboards where Chisholm ranks highly is his 11 stolen bases. Those are second among the second baseman, but the Yankees can't help but think that total should be more since his .281 on-base percentage is fourth-worst among the qualified second basemen.
What is Chisholm's Statistical History?
Chisholm entered this season as a .248 career hitter and was coming off a season where he hit 31 homers, drove in 80 runs and stole 49 bases. He achieved those numbers in 130 games while missing time with a hamstring injury after spending the final two months with the Yankees following a trade from the Marlins.
In the postseason, Chisholm hit 4-for-22, and during the offseason, some rumors about the Yankees considering trading him appeared.
Those rumors never went anywhere, and Chisholm spoke boldly during spring training. In fact, he spoke so boldly about joining Shohei Ohtani in the 50-50 club.
In other words, Chisholm did not leave well enough alone. Instead of thinking about ways to replicate an impressive 30-30 season, he may have made himself a target for fans by pushing himself for 50 homers and 50 stolen bases.
The added pressure Chisholm may have put on himself may be manifesting into his poor results. As he struck out three times in Monday's 3-2 loss at Baltimore, it was something YES Network announcers Michael Kay and Joe Girardi could not help but notice and something sort of backed up by manager Aaron Boone.
"You have high expectations and obviously, he's an outstanding player," Boone told reporters "You sense guys feeling it when you're a month plus in and you're not doing what the back of your baseball card is.
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"Probably feeling that a little bit. Probably pressing a little too much, trying to do a little too much. He's gonna get it going, I have no doubt about that."
Yankee recent free agent second baseman history
Chisholm's rough start may be evoking how Gleyber Torres' seven-year tenure with the Yankees ended.
Torres peaked in 2019 by hitting 38 homers and .278 on a team that won 103 games with an absurd amount of injuries. Torres never approached those numbers again, and while his 24 homers and 76 RBIs in 2024 were respectable, it was apparent the Yankees were not going to bring him back.
Torres settled for a one-year "prove it" deal with the Tigers. After hitting .256 with 16 homers and 74 RBIs last season, Torres returned to Detroit on the qualifying offer just like Trent Grisham did with the Yankees.
Before Torres, the most prominent Yankee free agent second baseman was Robinson Cano in 2013.
At the time, Cano was a .309 hitter in nine seasons with the Yankees with five straight 25-homer seasons and a trio of 100-RBI seasons. It seemed the Yankees were going to keep him, but the Mariners outbid them with a $240 million, 10-year contract.
Of course, nobody foresaw what happened next but starting in 2018, Cano was suspended multiple times for PED usage, and the Mariners had enough of him on their team in Dec. 2018 by trading him to the Mets along with Edwin Diaz.
The Yankees own a history of not signing players to new contracts during a season. They did agree to a new contract with Judge in the 2022 season, though they publicly aired what the offer was before they knew he was going to break the AL single-season home run record.
Ultimately they retained Judge and on this current course, it is hard to see the same outcome unfolding with Chisholm and the Yankees, whose four-game losing streak is making his rough season even more noticable.
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This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 11:04 AM.