Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s rookie year has been a ‘learning curve.’ His goal: End on ‘a winning note’
After an up-and-down first full Major League Baseball season — one filled with a mix of towering home runs and flailing strikeouts, flashy glovework and costly errors, hot streaks and injuries — Jazz Chisholm Jr. has his share of goals in mind to close the 2021 season on a high note.
Ten home runs, a .400 batting average and a few stolen bases in this final stretch would be nice, the Miami Marlins’ rookie infielder said.
But Chisholm desires something beyond the individual accolades as well.
“Just end the year on a winning note,” Chisholm said, “and come back next year and build off of that and not just keep on losing.”
Chisholm’s first taste of the big leagues came in the final weeks of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, a stretch in which the Marlins clinched their first playoff appearance since 2003 and won a postseason series against the Chicago Cubs.
The 2021 campaign has not had as many high points. The Marlins are in last place in the National League East with an 11th losing season in a 12-year span all but an inevitability at this point.
Chisholm has experienced the highs and lows during his first full season.
“I never imagined that that’s what it would be,” Chisholm said, “with people saying ‘Oh my God, that’s Jazz Chisholm. That’s Jazz. I want to see Jazz.’ All that stuff, it’s amazing.”
The confidence and outwardly positive persona translated into his share of success this season. His 16 stolen bases lead all MLB rookies and his 14 home runs this season are third among National League rookies behind only the Cubs’ Patrick Wisdom (23) and the Reds’ Jonathan India (17).
Chisholm, who has primarily played second base but has also gotten spot starts at shortstop, is hitting .256 with 43 RBI and 51 runs scored over 92 games, solid marks for a rookie in his first full season.
But there have been bumps in the road along the way.
He’s missed 34 games this year due to three separate injuries — a left hamstring strain, a right ankle sprain and a left shoulder contusion — and an illness.
Chisholm was batting .290 with a .926 on-base-plus-slugging mark in his first 21 games before the hamstring injury sidelined him from 16 games.
His stats in the stretches since then:
▪ Eight games between returning from the hamstring injury and suffering the ankle injury, which sidelined him for a week: .278 batting average (10 for 36), 16 strikeouts, four RBI, four runs scored.
▪ 41 games between returning from the ankle injury and suffering the shoulder injury, which caused him to miss nine games: .228 batting average (36 for 158), six doubles, two triples, six home runs, 23 RBI, 23 runs scored and 49 strikeouts.
▪ 22 games since returning from the shoulder injury, a stretch which included him missing five games due to illness: .273 batting average (21 for 77), two double, three home runs, nine RBI, 13 runs scored, five stolen bases and 17 strikeouts.
Defensively, Chisholm has committed 19 errors in the field, 11 at second base and eight at shortstop. That’s one shy of the MLB lead. Chisholm said “the speed of the game” got to him at times early in the season.
“I feel a lot more comfortable now,” Chisholm said, adding that the errors “come with the game and the territory” and that he has been focusing on reading the spin of the ball off the bat and speeding up his reaction time to be in a better position to make plays.
Marlins manager Don Mattingly said he has seen growth in Chisholm over the course of the season, noting that the rookie has been “more direct” and has “less wild swings.”
“You see a guy that has experience at this point,” Mattingly said. “Hopefully, he is more consistent down the stretch and he gives us a good view of what he can be when he is day in and day out consistent.”
And while the numbers over this final stretch haven’t been up to Chisholm’s standards, but he feels like the results are close to coming again.
Since Aug. 1, 45.5 percent of the balls Chisholm has put into play have been hard hit, defined by Statcast as having an exit velocity of at least 95 mph. His career average is 40.3 percent. However, only 11 of those 25 hard-hit balls have resulted in hits (three home runs, one double, seven singles).
“I feel like I’m back at me,” Chisholm said. “I feel very comfortable in the box against everybody that goes on the mound. I feel I’m taking really good swings. My swing feels great. I feel everything is clicking for me right now.”
Chisholm has five more weeks to show that everything will continue to click.
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