at least 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases<\/a>. He was also excellent defensively, and still is this season. But to cash in, he needs to hit. A .603 OPS and 72 wRC+ won\u2019t be enough.<\/p>\n\u201cI know that, just like last year, he\u2019s gonna find his rhythm and it\u2019s gonna be really fun to watch when he does,\u201d Yankees first baseman Ben Rice, who clobbered his 13th home run of the season Monday, said.<\/p>\n
None of Chisholm\u2019s batted ball metrics point toward a hitter who is getting unlucky at the plate. His contact quality stats are all down significantly. Only five batters are hitting underneath the ball more than Chisholm this season, which has resulted in weak popups.<\/p>\n
Alarmingly, Chisholm has particularly struggled with hitting fastballs this season. He\u2019s never finished a full season with an OPS below .806 against fastballs. He entered Monday\u2019s game with a .731 OPS against fastballs.<\/p>\n
Chisholm has also seen a drastic drop in his fast-swing rate, which Statcast measures as the percentage of all swings at 75 mph or harder. This season, Chisholm\u2019s fast-swing rate was 27.4 percent; last year it was 41.9 percent. This stat matters because all swings that were categorized as \u201cfast\u201d last season resulted in a .942 OPS, and swings slower than 75 mph had a .585 OPS. Essentially, the harder a player swings, the likelier he is to see success.<\/p>\n
At a minimum, the Yankees should consider putting Chisholm in more favorable matchups to hit. He entered Monday\u2019s game with a 54 wRC+ against left-handed pitching. With the Yankees up 2-0 in the sixth inning and one out, Chisholm had an uncompetitive at-bat against Orioles lefty reliever Dietrich Enns. Amed Rosario could play more second base against lefties while Chisholm works through his issues; the Yankees, who got six no-hit innings from Ryan Weathers to start Monday\u2019s game but lost their fourth in a row, are expected to face lefty starter Trevor Rogers on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Jos\u00e9 Caballero could also become an option against lefties if Anthony Volpe is back in the majors at any point. Caballero will undergo an MRI on Tuesday to examine his right middle finger, which he hurt in Sunday\u2019s game. Caballero entered Monday night as a pinch runner in the ninth inning, but Boone said before the game there\u2019s \u201cdefinitely concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Yankees need Chisholm to break through, no matter when he plays and no matter whom he faces. He is the pivot point in their lineup. The top half is one of the best in baseball. Chisholm\u2019s performing like one of baseball\u2019s best will only lengthen their lineup. Until then, there might be more silent nights for the second baseman.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe hasn\u2019t fully broken out yet, and he will,\u201d Boone said. \u201cIt\u2019s the hard part of this game. As a hitter, even the good ones, you\u2019re going to go through different stretches where you know you\u2019ve got it. You\u2019ve got to be mentally tough and continue to stick to your process and make subtle adjustments and then walk out there with some swagger.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BALTIMORE \u2014 A telltale sign of Jazz Chisholm Jr.\u2019s frustration is that he didn\u2019t speak. The most loquacious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,2704,85],"class_list":["post-666264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}