A September to remember could decide Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s Yankees future

It has no doubt been a frustrating year for Jazz Chisholm Jr. Last year's Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Award-winning campaign brought about high expectations for the New York Yankees second baseman, who then upped the ante with his 50-50 proclamation over the offseason, and the fall off has been dramatic. As a result, many are ready to move on once his contract expires at the end of the season.

Outside of the poor performance, Jazz has committed some egregious sins. He's admitted to being fuzzy on the situation after a key force play early in the season, resulting in a defensive blunder that lost a key game for the Yankees against the Tampa Bay Rays. Then there was Lollipop Gate, and all the unwanted attention that brought for no good reason.

At the same time, Chisholm Jr. has come up big in some really key moments. It's been such a weird year that his performance has often been overlooked. For example, entering the weekend, he's batting .342/.390/.579 in high-leverage situations.

His defense, something that has often been criticized, has also been hard to parse. He's posted 10 outs above average, which ranks fifth among qualified MLB second basemen. He's also recorded -8 defensive runs saved, a mark that is just one spot up from 2017 MVP thief Jose Altuve's league-worst performance.

While ideally you'd like the OAA and DRS numbers to line up, the OAA is a more reasonable indicator of his performance. That has to do with the way the two stats work. Without getting too far into the weeds, OAA uses StatCast data to determine how far an infielder had to travel to get a ball, how hard he threw it, and the amount of time he had to make a play based on the runner's sprint speed. DRS doesn't look at his starting point, and instead focuses on which area of the field the ball was fielded.

The most underrated development, though, has been that for as miserable as Chisholm Jr. has been at the plate this season, he's quietly been turning it on in the second half. The 28-year-old has slashed .256/.331/.442 with a 113 wRC+ since the All-Star break. That's a massive improvement from his .223/.303/.395 95 wRC+ performance in the first half, and much more in line with the .242/.332/.481 125 wRC+ he turned in last year.

To truly determine his Yankees' future, Chisholm Jr. will have to put together a strong September to prove that his second-half rise isn't just a mirage.

A strong September will make re-signing Jazz Chisholm Jr. a top Yankees offseason priority

This isn't the first 2026 hot streak that Jazz has had. As Greg Joyce of the New York Post points out, Chisholm Jr. hit .289 with a .928 OPS from mid-May until mid-June over a 22-game stretch. He followed that up with a 44-game stretch in which he produced just a .189 average and .645 OPS.

Streaks are fine, but what the Yankees need is consistency. As we've seen, without Aaron Judge, it has been a struggle to score runs more often than not, and the team needs hitters it can count on, whether or not its nucleus is healthy and firing on all cylinders.

So far, Jazz is off to a good start. He started September with a bang by going 3-for-5 with a homer against the Angels, and though he was 0-for-3 in the Sept. 2 matchup, he did draw a walk and score a run. If he can stay hot throughout this month, it will change the perception of his season dramatically.

There's also a false narrative that some are pushing that Chisholm Jr. is a selfish player, but that's not really the truth. He can look unfocused at times, sure, but this is also a guy who twice played out of position because of the team's poor roster construction and never once complained (though he did turn his back awkwardly to reporters after being left out of the Yankees' Game 1 mix against Garrett Crochet last year).

He's also shown himself to be one of the league's good guys. Erica Block recently shared on Twitter/X her experience with Chisholm Jr. from 2018, when she was a new reporter covering the Diamondbacks and felt out of place. Chisholm Jr. recognized her unease and made it a point to talk to her and ask her questions about an article she had written. That's not what a me-first player would do.

Frankly, the options that will be available to the Yankees at second base are pretty slim this offseason. It will come down to Chisholm Jr., Luis Arraez, and Brandon Lowe. The latter two have had resurgent defensive seasons, but neither has the skill set to impact the game on multiple fronts like Jazz. He could prove to be head and shoulders above them with a September to remember, and even more so if that leads to an October that we'll never forget.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow