Yankees infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. has been prescribed rest and rehab for the UCL injury in his left elbow and is expected to play again this season, per Jon Heyman and Greg Joyce of the New York Post. He’ll likely still be sidelined into September, but it’s clearly good news for the Yanks that their most impactful deadline pickup won’t require immediate surgery and could return down the stretch.
Chisholm hit the injured list just two days ago after suffering a left elbow strain on a slide into home plate. As we’ve seen in the past with position players, it’s possible to play through ligament damage in the non-throwing elbow without being greatly impacted at the plate. (Both Shohei Ohtani and Bryce Harper have had productive stretches at the plate despite ligament injuries that required eventual surgery.) That’ll be the goal for the Yankees and Chisholm in the short term. There has yet to be any indication that eventual offseason surgery has been expressly ruled out. Presumably, that’ll hinge on how Chisholm’s elbow responds to the rest. Most — but certainly not all — sprains of the UCL do eventually require surgical repair.
The 26-year-old Chisholm has been a force in the Yankees’ lineup since being acquired from the Marlins in exchange for a prospect package headlined by young catcher Agustin Ramirez. In 14 games and 61 plate appearances, he’s ripped an incredible seven home runs while batting .316/.361/.702. That surge propelled Chisholm to 20 homers, and the five bases he’s swiped along the way have him at 27 steals on the year. It’s the first 20-20 season of the Bahamian-born infielder’s career.
Chisholm’s power-speed blend and potential for a 20-20 or even 30-30 season have long been apparent, but he’s been too prone to injury to realize that type of production until the 2024 campaign. He’s previously dealt with shoulder, back, foot and oblique injuries that limited him to a total of 281 games in three seasons from 2021-23. His latest injury appears that it’ll lead to another absence of some note, but if Chisholm is back for even half of September, he’d have time to surpass his previous career-high 124 games in a big league season.
The Yankees control Chisholm via arbitration through the 2026 season. He’s earning $2.625MM in 2024 and will be due a pair of raises in the next two offseasons. Chisholm has served as their primary third baseman since being acquired, although with Gleyber Torres slated to become a free agent at season’s end, a return to second base for Chisholm next season could be in the cards. His hot streak with the Yankees has boosted his season line from roughly average to a more productive .257/.328/.445, and Chisholm now touts a similar .254/.319/.468 slash with 53 long balls and 61 stolen bases through 1115 plate appearances dating back to 2022.
Not a bad pickup if he could stay healthy
That’s what they say about Trout, Verlander, Buxton, Scherzer, et al….
It sucks to see Jazz get hurt again but this isn’t the worst time for it to happen. The Yankees schedule is weak through the next three weeks so if he’s back in September and ready for the postseason, they should be fine
Let’s hope he doesn’t need Tommy John for his non throwing arm
Or do ucl’s not lead to TJ? So much to know 🙁
We don’t know the extent of the damage. Most likely he’s getting PRP injections now to help the UCL heal.
Based on the farm system, I’d say Chisholm’s future is at 3rd. The Yankees have 4 dudes ready to at least try 2nd and no one for 3rd in the high minors
That depends on how Peraza looks over these next few weeks. He hasn’t shown much yet but still has the highest upside of the Yankees IFs in the upper minors
Ronk: Agreed that Peraza still may have more to show. I have him atop my 2nd depth chart: Peraza, Cabrera, Durbin, and Vivas. I don’t think Peraza will ever hit enough for 3rd but he could be a solid bat for 2nd and probably win gold gloves over there.
That’s possible down the line but Peraza has a strong arm and Jazz is better suited at 2B
Whether Peraza plays 2nd and Jazz 3rd, or vice versa, makes no difference to the offense.
Gasu1, in a vacuum. Harder to find a guy for 3rd so put the better player there. Peraza deserves a shot but plenty of guys in the minors who can handle 2nd but don’t have the arm for 3rd (Durbin and Vivas).
True, but Jazz is established as a major leaguer. So the solution is Jazz plus someone else. If the solution is Peraza, which is what people are generally talking about, you might as well play the pair to maximize D. If Durbin beats out Peraza, sure. But Peraza should get the edge over the others because of his defensive versatility, which would eliminate the need to carry a no-bat backup SS. If, finally, he can hit.
Please bring in Votto, Mr. Cashman. Whatever it takes to acquire his services- could probably acquire him for 2-3 good prospects. Thank you, sir.
Votto is hitting .176 with two homers in the minors. He needs to retire now, not tomorrow. I thought Willie (.211) Mays and Brooks (.149) Robinson looked bad. Votto’s awful.
How many MLB players are named after a music genre? I recall a prospect named Rock Shoulders from a few years back. Anyone else come to mind?
Jonathan Rocker.
Mike Sweeney
Pat Rapp.
Rap isn’t music.
Found the a-hole everyone, he’s right here.
Bit of a stretch, Vida Blue.
Also a stretch, Frank Viola and Kevin Bass.
Obviously your muting skills are just as horrible as your question.
Pay attention because I’m only doing this once.
Muted.
Rangers have Kumar Rocker 8n their system. That’s pretty close.
Zach Pop !
The Tigers, A’s and Reds had Frank House…
Reggae Jackson.
Not trying to be a buzzkill, but Jazz is a nickname. His real name is Jasrado.
As to ’60s dance crazes, there’s “Do The Freddie” Freeman.
The baseball gods never take kindly to a player that overly celebrates a homer off a position player. Look what happened to Rendon after switching to lefty, hitting one.
Well, there’s Waltz Moryn and Waltz Dropo for starters…
And Vida Blue(s).
And the Dodgers have prospect Justin Chambers.
In football there’s Nick Folk…
Robert Crosby.
So much hype for a league average player.
“League average player”…Obviously Jazz is better when motivated, but guys who are injury prone in their 20’s will be uber injury prone and virtually unplayable in their 30’s.
League average player? Everything Ik reading says he’s decidedly above average. There’s more to evaluating value and contributions than his wRC+ (112) which is likely where you’re drawing his value from this articles notes, but even though that marker is above average his value seems to greater.
Chisholm has been in the 70th percentile in batting value, 98th percentile fielding value and 91st percentile in base running value according to his bballsavant player page and fangraphs has him pegged for 2.9 WAR thus far.
That reads like an above average regular/borderline All Star in overall value to me.
Hope in one hand, bleep in the other …..
Why you’re telling us your typical evening plans seems like an overshare.
Keeps the arb raise down a bit. Every penny will be required for Soto as the Yankees tightrope self imposed madness.
Stanton, Judge and now Chisholm, Yanks have a thing for injury prone players. Judge they drafted but the other two they traded for. Some people just never learn
Judge has played in 87% of games the last four seasons.
Beat ability is availability.
He was doing pretty good for them, was doing well at 3B, just from watching him not accounting for his defensive numbers. Hopefully he come back to make that playoffs push.
Of course a small sample size, but I’d think we’d all hope he’s back in September. Jazz is raking in the Bronx.
This September or next September