Alexander Wilson
The Yankees needed a jolt Tuesday, and of course Jazz Chisholm Jr. delivered it in the most Jazz Chisholm Jr. way possible.
One day after the lollipop bit became a whole mini-drama, Chisholm went 2-for-4 with a go-ahead two-run homer, two runs scored and enough personality to make the win feel a little louder than a normal 4-3 game in Detroit. I get why Aaron Boone hated the optics. I also get why fans enjoy watching a player who can annoy everyone for 24 hours and then decide the game with one bat path.
That has become the deal with Jazz Chisholm Jr. right now. He brings chaos, speed, power, weird little moments and a season line that still leaves room for a lot more. Through 75 games, he is sitting at a .230 average, .315 OBP, .416 slugging rate, 12 homers and 23 stolen bases.
Yankees can live with the weird if the production follows
The part that matters is not whether Chisholm should be chewing candy on the field. He should not, plain and simple. The part that matters is whether the Yankees are getting enough game-changing output to tolerate the noise that comes with him.
Tuesday gave them the answer they wanted. Chisholm scored on Jose Caballero’s groundout in the fourth, then jumped a Casey Mize pitch in the sixth for the two-run shot that flipped the game. It carried more than cosmetic production in a random blowout. He supplied the run that turned a three-game skid into a win, and that carries a different weight.
There is still a volatility tax here. Chisholm can chase, he can get streaky, and his approach sometimes feels like it is moving faster than the situation around him. But when a player has double-digit homer pop, 20-plus steal speed and the ability to change the mood of a lineup, the Yankees have to let some of the odd stuff breathe.
The Jazz question gets louder near July
The Yankees are going to have a real deadline conversation about how much offense they need to add, especially if they keep getting uneven nights from the bottom half of the order. Chisholm complicates that in a good way.
If he is merely average, the front office has to chase more thump. If he starts turning these kinds of nights into a regular run, he becomes one of the reasons they can be more selective. That might mean spending assets on pitching, bench balance or a more specialized bat instead of hunting for a major lineup reshuffle.
I would not declare anything fixed after one homer and one funny dugout moment. That would be ridiculous, even by June baseball standards. But Chisholm gave the Yankees the exact kind of win they have been missing lately, annoying pregame noise included.
The candy can go away. The edge, speed and left-handed damage cannot.
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