For Chisholm, baseball’s a ‘piece of my heart.’ The Marlins hope he’s part of their future.
Jazz Chisholm’s enthusiasm for baseball and upbeat persona could probably be summed up in one instance from his first spring training game of the season.
With two outs in the eighth inning of the Miami Marlins’ Grapefruit League opener on Saturday against the New York Mets, the Marlins’ shortstop prospect showed off he speed as he went to steal third base.
When he finished his head-first slide into third, narrowly getting under the tag, the base dislodged and ended up in his left arm.
Chisholm got up, still holding onto the base, and had a thought.
“When it came in my hand and I was still holding it, I was thinking ‘Hey, can I put this in my locker and you guys can just get a new base?’” Chisholm said. “I just was feeling it.”
Chisholm, 22, is always feeling it when he’s on a baseball diamond. It’s the sport he grew up with in the Bahamas before signing his first professional baseball contract in 2015 when he was 17. Just touching a baseball, talking about baseball, grabbing a routine ground ball is all he needs for the euphoria to come rushing in.
He’s also pretty good at the sport. Chisholm, acquired by the Marlins from the Arizona Diamondbacks for Zac Gallen at the July trade deadline last season, is the No. 4 prospect in Miami’s farm system and the No. 54 overall prospect in baseball according to MLBPipeline. The Marlins view him as their shortstop of the future.
“Baseball is part of my life. It’s like a piece of my heart,” Chisholm said. “With baseball, I feel like that piece of my heart is always joy and happiness. It always just comes out every time I feel a baseball, talk about baseball. It’s a joy.”
He has come up clutch in the Marlins’ first two spring games. He’s 3 for 3 with a walk in his four plate appearances. He scored the go-ahead run on Saturday shortly after stealing third base. He showed plate discipline on Sunday with a five-pitch walk in the seventh before hitting a two-RBI double in the eighth inning of the Marlins’ 5-2 win over the Washington Nationals. He flashed his quick hands defensively as he helped turn three double plays on Sunday.
The Marlins hope he’ll be a central piece in their upcoming youth movement with several of their top prospects getting closer to their MLB debuts.
“You’re playing that premium position,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “You want to be able to play defense in the middle, and we trust that. To see the at-bats, actually the walk was a good at-bat I thought. It’s good to see these guys — again, it’s early in camp, but it’s good to see these young guys play and see them all excited.”
It doesn’t take much to get Chisholm excited. He feeds off the vibe in the clubhouse, rallying around the veterans and his fellow up-and-comers in what he calls a “family atmosphere.”
And then there’s the competition, the opportunity to show the Marlins made the right decision trading for him. That’s still in process.
“I feel like the club already knows what I can bring to the table,” Chisholm said. “I’m just going out there to win, honestly. I’m not going out there to show tools. I’m going out there to win even though it’s only spring training. I’m feeling good out there.”
That’s a mind set he plans to carry the rest of his career.
“Every game I play, I’m having fun,” Chisholm said. “That’s never going to change. I could be 50 out there, and I’m still going to have fun. Every day is 100-percent fun for me. All smiles.”
More Marlins notes
▪ Similar to Jordan Yamamoto on Saturday, Marlins starting pitcher Elieser Hernandez struggled in the first inning on Sunday before rebounding with a quality second frame. Hernandez didn’t allow a hit, but he did give up a run after he hit Victor Robles with a pitch, walked Adam Eaton, allowed both to advance on a wild pitch and then giving up an RBI groundout to Kurt Suzuki.
“I was a little upset with myself,” Hernandez said through an interpreter about his first-inning performance. “I was like, ‘What am I doing? Attack.’”
▪ Daniel Castano impressed among the Marlins’ bullpen pitchers on Sunday. The 6-4, 230-pound lefty acquired as part of the Marcell Ozuna trade needed just 14 pitches to get through four innings. He allowed one baserunner in the fifth with a Wilmer Difo single but followed up by getting Luis Garcia to ground into an inning-ending double play.
▪ The top of Miami’s starting lineup looked like it could be representative of what will be seen on Opening Day. Mattingly had Jonathan Villar leading off, followed by Brian Anderson, Corey Dickerson and then Jesus Aguilar in the cleanup spot.
▪ The Marlins held a pre-game moment of silence for Orrin Freeman, an original member of the franchise in the scouting department who died Friday due to complications with diabetes. Freeman was 70.
▪ The Marlins on Sunday hosted 30 local youth from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County, Blanche Ely High and S.T.A.M.P Mentoring for a Black History Month-themed visit to Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. As part of the trip, they toured the Marlins clubhouse, watched batting practice, met with CEO Derek Jeter and president of baseball operations Michael Hill to discuss Jackie Robinson’s impact on the game and took part in the team’s pregame introductions.
▪ Jeter and majority owner Bruce Sherman watched Sunday’s game from a suite.
▪ Sandy Alcantara, the likely frontrunner to be the Marlins’ 2020 Opening Day starter, makes his spring training debut on Monday against the St. Louis Cardinals.
This story was originally published February 23, 2020 at 5:57 PM.
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