Jazz Chisholm’s latest comments are a Yankees ticking time bomb

Since being acquired from the Miami Marlins, Jazz Chisholm Jr. has willingly done everything the New York Yankees have asked of him. Or, more accurately, he's done the same uncomfortable thing twice.

Once, it was to accommodate a talented, but mercurial homegrown player who was on the outs, but still held sway in his walk year. The best version of the 2024 Yankees included a satisfied Gleyber Torres, so once he began to find his groove in the leadoff spot, Aaron Boone had to do anything possible to keep the house of cards up. Understandable, but frustrating to see a departing player dictate his position, but what can you do? Jazz would play third.

The second time around, the Yankees have chosen to accommodate a near-37-year-old with limited range, a slightly less limited bat, and a hefty price tag attached to his regression. You could almost understand the dilemma the Yankees created for themselves last summer, even if you hated Jazz's improvisation. This time around? It's impossible to comprehend.

But, for whatever reason, the Yankees are attached to DJ LeMahieu until either he dies or they do. He's slightly less withered this season than he was the last several, but he still can't cover second base. When Jazz plays the position, he glides; when LeMahieu does, he stands still, commanding his legs to move as if caught in a nightmare where they're cemented to the dirt.

The Yankees owe LeMahieu $15 million next season and half of that for 2025, and while they've technically received surplus WAR from him, he's a round peg in a gaping square hole ahead of a trade deadline where they need both a starting third baseman and a versatile bench bat with more value than Oswald Peraza. And, if they weren't already planning on moving off their beloved, Jazz's latest quotes just lit a fire they may not be able to ignore - even if he was just being his usual affable and honest self.

Yankees' Jazz Chisholm Jr.: "Everybody knows I'm a second baseman."

He continued by applying the game's favored clichés, noting that he would do whatever it took to "help the team win," and didn't plan on pivoting from that degree of malleability.

Glaringly, though, he also noted that, all offseason long, he worked exclusively at second base, with the explicit intent of erasing last summer's on-the-fly semi-trauma.

Why, then, would the Yankees backtrack on their plan entirely just so we could all watch several weeks of a beloved 2019 figure becoming more of a villain by the day?

Letting Torres walk wasn't necessarily a mistake; he deserved a fresh start in someone else's spotlight. But leaving a gaping hole in his wake was an avoidable disaster.

The Yankees seem close to acknowledging their current reality, with Aaron Boone admitting after Tuesday's loss that they'll need to flexibly evaluate their alignment, stating, "Ummm, I think both guys [LeMahieu and Chisholm Jr.] are really talented defenders wherever they line up. But we'll continue to look at things like that."

That evaluation had better come quick, because the clock is ticking and trust is eroding by the minute.