Yankees paying for raw Jazz Chisholm’s defensive miscues: ‘Something I worry about’

Jazz Chisholm Jr. gave the Yankees their best offensive moment of Monday night’s loss, but it was his defense that played a bigger role in the game’s result. 

Chisholm made a pair of defensive miscues during the Yankees’ 4-2 Game 2 loss to the Royals, canceling out a ninth-inning solo home run that served as a consolation prize for a team that struggled all night at the plate. 

The first, and more costly, of those came in the four-run fourth inning that flipped the momentum in the game.

With Tommy Pham on second and one out, Chisholm failed to cut off Alex Verdugo’s throw from left field after Garrett Hampson singled. 

As a result, there was no play at the plate on Pham and Hampson easily took second, later coming in to score on Maikel Garcia’s base hit. 

“I thought about it right away,” Chisholm said. “I don’t know if you guys saw me, I said, ‘My bad’ to [Alex] Verdugo right away. Cause that’s supposed to stop the inning right there. It [wouldn’t] have been three [runs] instead of two.” 

Aaron Boone, a third baseman in his playing days, said it was the sort of play that would have been natural had Chisholm played the position more throughout his career. 

“That’s one of the things I worry about with some of our guys that are new to first base or new to third base,” Boone said. “… Those are the little things that have to become instinctive and that’s kind of where the work in progress comes a little bit. But yeah, he’s going to be in that cut position.” 

Chisholm’s error one inning later was less costly on the scoreboard, though unlike the earlier mistake, it was actually scored an error as he misfired on a throw from third to first, allowing Yuli Gurriel to reach safely. 

Ironically, the Yankees were bailed out of that jam by another positional convert when Jon Berti made an excellent grab at first base on M.J. Melendez’s line drive for an unassisted double play. 

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During 400 ¹/₃ innings at the position in the regular season, Chisholm made seven errors — four of which were throwing errors — but graded out passably according to advanced metrics. 

According to FanGraphs, he had six outs above average and negative-two defensive runs saved.

That is not winning any Gold Gloves, but for a player learning a new position on the fly, it was something everyone could live with, particularly given Chisholm’s production at the plate. 

But it is October now. 

And the Yankees need more than just Chisholm’s bat.