Marlins star Jazz Chisholm was miserable in Miami. Now he’s having fun, ready for full bloom | Opinion
It is a cocktail of unfiltered honesty and refreshing self-confidence that many hear as arrogance when Miami Marlins star Jazz Chisholm Jr. gets going.
“To be a good baseball player you got to be some type of arrogant,” he says. “It’s not arrogance against anybody else. It’s arrogance against the game. You gotta be able to tell the game, ‘Bro, I got this’.”
Chisholm said that and a lot more, some incendiary stuff about his first three Marlins seasons, on the newest episode of The Pivot Podcast hosted by former NFL players Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder. The conversation is lengthy and digs to unlock one of the most brash, popular, colorful characters in South Florida sports.
He might be one of the best, too, although we’re still trying to be sure about that, because it is fair to say that he has underperformed big expectations thus far due largely to injuries. The finding out about Jazz continues as the Marlins open their new season at home on March 28.
Jasrado Prince Hermis Arrington Chisholm Jr.’s nickname is a phonetic derivative of the first syllable of his first name — and perfectly descriptive.
This Jazz — the jazz he speaks, the jazz he plays — is free-form, loud, dissonant and beautiful.
“I hated my first three seasons in the big leagues, hated 2020, 2021, 2022. I never talked to nobody,” he admitted. “Playing baseball was the worst. I hated being around these guys. These guys are trying to get me out of here, anyway.”
He painted on The Pivot the picture of a toxic Marlins clubhouse and culture those three years, one former manager Don Mattingly let happen. He referred to the club’s “bad captain,” without ever mentioning Miguel Rojas by name: “Not a good captain, not a good person, bringing down the young guys who were supposed be good.”
[Interjecting a personal aside: I never once had any indication Rojas was “not a good person,” which seemed a harsh thing to say.]
Chisholm got along well with Derek Jeter, but the former club president would not intervene in the clubhouse toxicity.
Jeter is the one who pushed the 2019 trade with Arizona to get Chisholm. The Marlins gave up top pitching prospect Zac Gallen, who went 17-9 for the Diamondbacks last year — more onus on Chisholm to stay healthy and blossom fully.
On the clubhouse problems, though, Jeter only told him, “Push through it.”
Chisholm arrived for his first spring training as a rookie with cleats and other equipment designed with his own colorful artwork. A veteran teammate “cut up my cleats, poured milk on my cleats, said ‘Those are trash.’ Destroyed things I worked hard to do.”
Push through it.
Chisholm came to the defense of teammate Jesus Sanchez in the dugout during that time when veteran players screamed at him for doing the “Juan Soto shuffle” after a home run. ‘Y’all better back off this man! Who y’all [to be] bringing him down?’” The ridiculous-yet-hallowed unwritten rules of baseball were being enforced. Younger players who dared show a personality and dared wear their charisma like a badge — players led by the one called Jazz — had it tough.
Push through it.
Those early seasons, “I had one [teammate] on my side, Starling Marte.” His best friend on the team with whom he hung out most was the batboy.
By 2022 there was a private team meeting meant to get Chisholm in line. Older veteran players were fed up with the young, flashy Bahamian kid ... or jealous of the attention he garnered?
“A meeting with guys I don’t hang out with,” he said. “They wanted to put me in a box and it wasn’t happening. ‘The way he dresses coming to the field.’ ‘Oh he wears four chains on the field.’ ‘He doesn’t wear dress shoes on the team plane’.”
The day of that meeting he hit two runs, decorating one of them with some Eurostep flash.
That ‘22 season, while hating to come to work every day with teammates he didn’t like, he made the National League All-Star team — a first for a player from the Bahamas — despite a back injury limiting him to 60 games.
Everything changed in 2023.
Mattingly was out, replaced by manager Skip Schumaker. Rojas was gone. Jeter, too. Older veterans who had given Chisholm lots of trouble and no respect — gone. The roster’s evolution included players he knew, liked. Last month the Fish traded for utility man Nick Gordon, Chisholm’s best friend.
One year ago this spring Chisholm was on the cover of MLB the Show’s video game, which would have sent his 2020-22 teammates through the roof. But by ‘23 things had changed.
“We got a new manager who changed the culture,” said Chisholm. “Our clubhouse now is so together. There’s not a color in our clubhouse. We’re together, bro. It’s like you’re playing with your family. Have fun and talk [expletive].”
When Schumaker got hired the first thing he did was fly to Miami and have dinner with Chisholm. The new manager realized he had a budding superstar, but one who’d been mistreated, mishandled.
“I want you as my team leader. I want you to change the culture here,” Schumaker told him.
“I can go play anywhere and still be one of the best at it,” the player answered back. “Skip showed me that I’m unstoppable.”
That conversation is why Chisholm, primarily a shortstop/second baseman, agreed to move to center field. The player known for cocky could be unselfish, too.
Last month on February 1, his 26th birthday, Chisholm lost in salary arbitration and settled for a one-year deal worth $2.625 million. He lost for one reason: His injury history. He will be arbitration-eligible the next two years before becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2027.
A Marlins ownership loathe to spend big to keep top players should open the wallet and make an exception for Chisholm. He is a fan favorite for a franchise forever starving for fans. He can be a cornerstone for a team solid on pitching but shy on offensive production.
But first he must prove he is worthy of a major financial commitment by showing he can have a full, healthy season that allows his potential to blossom and catch up to the personality.
Tua Tagovailoa proved that to the Dolphins this past season. Chisholm’s turn now.
Stay healthy. Be better than a career .245 batting average. Strike out less. Everything else is there. The speed, the defense. He can be a 30-home run guy. And his personality is an attribute because it is good-infectious.
“My biggest strength is having fun,” he once said. “The more fun I’m having, the better I play.”
He was miserable his first three Marlins seasons but pushed through the pain.
The fun finally started last year.
Jazz Chisholm has only just begun.
This story was originally published March 20, 2024 at 12:28 PM.
