From trade rumors ahead of his walk year to social media interactions with fans, Jazz Chisholm and the Yankees are going to enter an interesting chapter of their relationship in 2026.
There’s reason to believe this is a player who you can anchor your franchise’s core with; the tantalizing speed and excellent home run power make him an offensive juggernaut.
Defensively, he’s been one of the top second basemen in the game and can prevent runs with his outlier athleticism, although he does not always get credit for his strong play on that side of the ball.
It all comes with a very loud, unabashed, and authentic personality that can come off as unprofessional or unbecoming of a Yankee.
A history of injuries doesn’t help his case either, but should the Yankees really be looking at Jazz Chisholm as a player who doesn’t fit the pinstripes beyond 2026?
The Real Criticisms About Jazz Chisholm’s Time With the Yankees
Let’s start with the very real concerns regarding Jazz Chisholm, which start with an injury history that simply cannot be ignored when choosing to offer him a contract at the end of the 2026 season or not.
He’s due for an IL stint every single year, and that means you’re going to have a player who could lose some of his core skills sooner than expected depending on how his body ages.
Part of it is due to his wild playstyle, as he does not leave anything on the field effort-wise in all three phases of the game, swinging violently at meatballs, making mad dashes to the plate, and flailing in the infield to stop grounders.
It’s not reckless as much as it is a high-octane profile that often puts him in the line of fire when it comes to accidental contact with runners or pulling a muscle.
He has worked on dialing it back a bit, with his Sprint Speed declining sharply to 27.6 Feet Per Second, which doesn’t seem to be injury or age-related as it seems to be just not pushing his body when he’s banged up and making it worse.
Here’s the other thing that I think is real; the way he handled the benching in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series was bad and should not happen.
Turning your back to the media as they ask you questions about it isn’t how you should handle a benching for platoon reasons, but Chisholm would respond by making a big play on the bases to score the go-ahead run in Game 1.
A real conversation could be had about how Jazz Chisholm needs to have a better poker face and stay on the field more consistently in order to be paid like a top-flight player, but some of the critiques are simply outrageous.
Weeding Through the Nonsense Behind Jazz Chisholm’s Controversial Status
Let’s breakdown Jazz Chisholm’s recent string of social media ‘controversy’:
It started with a Christmas-themed Instagram post with his now-fiancee, and some of the images were fairly suggestive (although not graphic) which sparked some discourse that went viral on various social media platforms.
The flames were flamed further when the couple announced their engagement, which came with a digging into the personal history of his fiancee which revealed she was…an online model (that’s how we’ll choose to word this).
Whether you approve of that lifestyle or not is your opinion, but what does this have to do with baseball?
Making what some would consider a poor choice with your love life is his right and while you can judge it, I really hope that the Yankees aren’t making team assessments over their dating history of their player’s fiancees.
In a weird way they’ve shown they don’t care about these things since they traded for Cody Bellinger knowing he was engaged to Giancarlo Stanton’s ex-girlfriend.
Speaking of Giancarlo Stanton, he has both been featured in a music video where he was engaged in suggestive activity and did a nearly-nude magazine cover; who cares what these guys do off the field if it’s not deragatory?
Where this line gets blurred a bit is with Jazz Chisholm’s conduct on social media, now I won’t tell you that I like that the team’s best infielder is beefing with KutterIsKing on Twitter, but this has been part of who he is for years now.
Jazz Chisholm called out Miguel Rojas on a podcast, called out Maikel Garcia during an ALDS, and had been on the cover of MLB The Show 23 before the 2025 season started.
None of this stuff affects his ability to be on the field, his offensive abilities, or his effort level with his legs or glove, so why should I care about this stuff?
Should the Yankees probably call Jazz Chisholm to tell him he’s got to dial it back? Yes, but they shouldn’t create a massive hole at second base with no real replacement option in a trade because of it.
This is not a defense of all of his actions, but rather a question of whether a baseball team should cut ties with a player whom the clubhouse likes because of actions that have zero real consequence.
Jazz Chisholm has been one of the 30 most valuable players in baseball in WAR since being traded over to the Yankees during the 2024 trade deadline.
He’s one of the best power-speed threats in the game and is the young athletic left-handed bat whom fans have clamoured for during the Aaron Judge era.
Nick Swisher is the person and player who I’d compare Jazz Chisholm to most as a Yankee; Jorge Posada was not happy about some of Swisher’s antics but the clubhouse embraced him because he performed on the field.
Reading an article by New York Magazine in 2012, Swisher’s words resemble the ones that Chisholm has voiced since joining the Yankees:
“I’ve never been part of an organization that welcomed me in and said, ‘You know what, you are exactly the guy we want. Don’t change a thing. Be yourself.’ I’ve never really had that before”
In Chicago he had clashes with then-manager Ozzie Guillen and had a career-worst .743 OPS, but in New York he was authentically himself, and while he struggled in October, his regular season play and personality galvanized the team.
The Yankees’ unbuttoning as a clubhouse in 2009 helped them handle early-season adversity and harsh New York media market (seriously watch Mike Francesca talk about them on radio in April/May).
Having 26 buttoned-up and bland people on your team in the social media era is a bad idea if you want to build a locker room that can properly tune out the noise from outside.
We live in a world where everyone is on social media, and while Jazz Chisholm should probably tone his usage of it down, until it starts affecting his on-field play the Yankees should not be making baseball decisions because of it.
After a season where he was the best second baseman in the American League and heading into one where FanGraphs projects him to hit the most HRs at the position (27), we’ve got to get real about how we’re covering Chisholm’s antics.
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