With swagger and ‘dynamic’ play, Marlins’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. is becoming household name
Maybe it’s the dyed hair (first blue and now purple) or the chains around his neck or the batting practice T-shirts with his face on them or the various customized cleats he wears during the game.
Maybe it’s his ability to leg out infield singles, steal bases, mash home runs and make plays with his glove in the middle infield.
Or maybe it’s just his no-doubt confidence that he was going to not just become a Major League Baseball player but assert, from the start, that he’s going to make it into the Hall of Fame one day.
Whatever the reason, Jazz Chisholm Jr. commands your attention. His persona forces you to watch. His production keeps you watching.
“He’s a dynamic player,” Marlins general manager Kim Ng said. “The power, the speed, the defense.”
The 23-year-old Chisholm is not just becoming one of the most well-known rookies in MLB. He has also quickly become the face of professional baseball for the Bahamas, his home country that until now has not placed a sizable footprint at baseball’s highest level.
That’s changing with Chisholm as he turns heads during his first full big-league season.
He felt the love at loanDepot park Saturday, as the Marlins held a Bahamian Heritage Celebration during their 4-2 win over the Atlanta Braves.
“I’m from that small island, that small country where very few guys make it to where I’m at today,” Chisholm said. “That really humbles me.”
From the Bahamas to MLB
Just how rare is it for a Bahamian player to make it to the big leagues?
When Chisholm made his Marlins debut on Sept. 1, 2020, he became just the seventh player from the chain of nearly 700 islands and cays on the northwestern edge of the West Indies to play in an MLB game. This year, he was the first Bahamian player on an MLB Opening Day roster since MLB began releasing the annual data.
It was the first step of a dream that had been in place since Chisholm was maybe 2 or 3 years old, one inspired in large part by his grandmother, former Bahamian national softball team shortstop Patricia Coakley.
Chisholm said on an episode of the “Chris Rose Rotation” podcast that he promised his grandmother he would “keep pushing until I get that Hall of Fame plaque.” He recalled her taking him to the baseball fields in the Bahamas. When they were done playing, they would talk about the ins and outs of the sport while watching Marlins or Yankees games once they got back home.
“It made me fall in love with it,” Chisholm said, “because she just loved it so much.”
Chisholm’s love for the sport magnified a few years later after he moved to Wichita, Kansas, for high school. After he attended a game at Boston’s Fenway Park, he knew the dream had to become a goal.
“This was the place,” Chisholm said, “that did it for me.”
It took a little while, but he got there. He signed as an international free agent with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2015 for $200,000 and had three strong minor-league seasons to begin his career.
But it was in the 2018 Arizona Fall League, when he hit .442 with three home runs, 12 runs scored and seven stolen bases over 10 games, when Chisholm really began turning heads.
One person in particular who had interest: New Marlins CEO Derek Jeter.
Chisholm was on Miami’s radar. On July 31, 2019, he became part of the Marlins’ organization, with the Marlins acquiring him from the Arizona Diamondbacks for starting pitcher Zac Gallen.
“I went to the Arizona Fall League last year to look at some of our players and it took about three innings when I said, ‘Who is that?’” Jeter said about two weeks after the Marlins traded for Chisholm. “He’s someone that stood out on the field and obviously he has all the tools to be successful.”
He’s off to a solid start in the big leagues.
Through Saturday, Chisholm leads all qualified rookies with a .380 batting average on balls in play and .841 on-base-plus-slugging while ranking second with nine stolen bases and third with eight home runs.
Chisholm’s average sprint speed, defined by Statcast as “feet per second in a player’s fastest one-second window,” of 29.1 feet per second is the sixth-fastest among 179 players with at least 50 competitive runs so far this season.
For context, 27 feet per second is considered league average while 30 feet per second is considered elite.
“When he’s going well and he’s committed to his plan,” hitting coach Eric Duncan said, “he can hurt the other team in a multitude of ways.”
‘Just trying to be myself’
And Chisholm already had his share of highlight moments in his young career.
There was April 3, when Chisholm showed off his craftiness on the basepaths in a 12-7 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. Chisholm drew a five-pitch walk in the fourth inning, stole second on a pickoff attempt, stole third a pitch after the pickoff attempt and scored on a shallow sacrifice fly to right field. He did this while wearing a Grand Theft Auto-style design on his cleats.
There was his leadoff home run against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on April 23, one in which he nearly sent a ball into McCovey Cove while toe-tapping at the plate like Barry Bonds and wearing a hoodie underneath his jersey.
And then there was Thursday against the Colorado Rockies. After falling behind 0-2 in the second inning, he obliterated a slider over the heart of the plate, tossed his bat to the ground and watched the ball soar a projected 431 feet to right center field for the longest home run at loanDepot park this season.
“I don’t normally bat flip like that, but it was just in the moment for me,” Chisholm said. “As soon as I hit it, I knew that it was going to be there.”
In simplest terms: It’s Jazz Chisholm Jr. being Jazz Chisholm Jr.
“I’m just trying,” Chisholm said, “to be myself out there.”
Fans are noticing Chisholm’s success as much as the opposing teams who have to scout him.
Go to any Marlins game, home or away, and you’ll see your share of people in the stands wearing Chisholm’s No. 2.
It’s a full-circle moment of sorts for Chisholm. Growing up, he always wore jerseys of baseball’s greats.
Ken Griffey Jr., Bonds, and, yes, Jeter were among the usual suspects.
Now, he’s seeing young baseball players with his name on their back, asking for autographs, looking up to him.
“When I see someone with my jersey on, I mean, I can’t help but to smile,” Chisholm said. “It’s cool to see that because I was one of the guys wearing other people’s jerseys every day. I still wear other people’s jerseys. ... I’m so happy to see that fans actually care enough about me to buy my jersey.”
Where he needs to improve
But even with the big plays and big persona and big potential, there’s room for improvement. Chisholm, after all, is still a rookie. He has been hesitant at times making plays on defense and the occasional attempt to do too much on the basepaths has come back to burn him as well.
“You can say this with a lot of young players, but we’re just looking for consistency,” Ng said. “We’re looking for consistency in the at-bats as well as the defense. We want to have a pretty good idea of what he’s going to do. I don’t necessarily mean an outcome, but I mean in terms of the quality at-bats.”
There’s also the matter of staying on the field. He missed 15 games with a hamstring strain after stealing a base against the Milwaukee Brewers and missed another week after he sprained his ankle against the Philadelphia Phillies trying to turn a single into a double.
“I only know 110 percent,” Chisholm said, “so it’s hard for me to ever pull back and try and play any less. I try to find that in between spot, but at the same time, it’s hard for me because all I know how to do is go hard.”
Chisholm’s plan moving forward?
“Just have to be confident,” Chisholm said. “That’s all it’s about right now.”
This story was originally published June 11, 2021 at 11:25 AM.
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