Jazz Chisholm is enjoying playing for the New York Yankees. Starting at third base and batting sixth in the lineup on Monday night, the Yankees’ newest addition hit two home runs in a 14–4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.
Chisholm hit his first home run in the second inning, going opposite field off Zach Wheeler to give New York a 2–0 lead. He went deep again in the ninth against Garrett Stubbs, Philly’s reserve catcher who was giving the bullpen a break with an eight-run deficit.
This embedded content is not available in your region.
Stubbs attempted to throw off Chisholm’s timing with a 65 mph eephus pitch. But the five-year veteran wasn’t fooled and crushed the slow, high-arching pitch far into the right field seats. Outfielder Nick Castellanos didn’t even move back as he watched the fly ball go over him.
Chisholm, 26, was acquired from the Miami Marlins on Saturday for three minor league prospects. The expectation is that he will eventually play center field, allowing the Yankees to move Aaron Judge to a less demanding corner outfield position.
Judge also hit two home runs for the Yankees on Monday, both off regular major league pitchers. But that kind of outburst is expected from the MLB leader in that category. He now has 39 homers for the season, seven ahead of Shohei Ohtani.
For now, however, Chisholm will play third base after Gleyber Torres balked at moving over there from second base. The Yankees are looking for better production and defense at the position than Oswaldo Cabrera (.246 average, .646 OPS) has been providing.
Chisholm has never played third base in his major league career. But as Yankees manager Aaron Boone pointed out, Chisholm’s talent at shortstop should allow him to adapt.
With a 2-for-4 night, Chisholm boosted his average up to .251 with a .745 OPS, 13 home runs, 50 RBI and 23 stolen bases. In a Yankees uniform, he’s batting .333 with a 1.400 OPS.
