Pros and Cons: Should Yankees trade for Jazz Chisholm Jr.?

The Miami Marlins are for-sure sellers and the Yankees for sure could use a jolt. Might the two teams match up on a trade for Jazz Chisholm Jr., an enticing power-speed player who might just get to his lofty ceiling in front of big, boisterous Bronx crowds amid the push for an AL pennant?

It’s clear that Miami will move some of its players. It jumped the MLB trade deadline by more than two months when it sent Luis Arráez to San Diego in May, so it is open for business and that only figures to intensify before the July 30 deadline.

And Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported on Thursday that the Yanks have discussed the potential of trading for Chisholm.

The Marlins are awful – 32-61 entering play Friday, which is the worst mark in the National League and the second-worst overall. They need to retool and replenish.

While Chisholm is not a corner infielder or a high-octane relief pitcher, he might fit a need the Yanks probably would not have projected before the season. More on that in a smidge. 

Let’s dive into the pros and cons of the Yanks potentially targeting Chisholm:

The Pros

Chisholm, who’s only 26, has profiled as a future star for a few years now. To be clear, he has not gotten there yet, though he’s shown flashes, including a 2022 All-Star nod. When healthy, he’s dynamic -- and he has a slash line of .255/.324/.419 in 90 games so far this season with 12 homers, 18 steals and 42 RBI.

His ‘22 All-Star season is key, because it showed what kind of player he is when he’s soaring. The lefty swinger had 14 homers, 45 RBI, 12 steals, a .535 slugging percentage and an .860 OPS in 60 games. But that season was wrecked by injury. Last year, in 97 games, Chisholm had 19 homers and 22 steals. 

One of the many qualities that makes Chisholm fun to watch is that he’s got a big personality and can be flashy. We’d have to see how that would play among the buttoned-up Yankees, though, frankly, their product could use that kind of flair.

The need he’d fill in Yankeeland is this: He was an All-Star as a second baseman in 2022. Then the Marlins sought to exploit his athleticism further by putting him in center field, where he’s been the past two seasons. So Chisholm could help the Yankees at second and, perhaps, in the outfield, too. 

In his platform year before free agency, second baseman Gleyber Torres has struggled and recently got a time out of sorts from manager Aaron Boone. Torres also was the subject of some on-field frustration from pitcher Marcus Stroman after the Yanks failed to turn a double play in Toronto, though the air seems to have been cleared from that. 

Still, Torres is not having a good season, even if he’s been better since Boone briefly sat him. Torres is batting .224 with a .297 on-base percentage and .340 slugging, well below all of his career marks. Maybe Torres could be flipped to help address another need – the aforementioned corner infield or relief help – and Chisholm could become the Yankees’ second baseman for the next few years. 

Chisholm is making $2.6 million this year and is eligible for arbitration in both 2025 and 2026, which means he’s not just a rental. 

The Cons

Before this season, Chisholm had clocked three full years in the majors. But he only played 281 of a possible 486 regular season games over that span. That’s 57.8 percent. His career high in a season, so far, is the 124 games he played in 2021. 

In 2022, his game was ascending, but back issues meant he did not play after June 28. Last season, he was slowed by a toe injury that required surgery, and an oblique injury. Chisholm has appeared in 84 of 87 games this season, so perhaps that’s a sample size the Yanks could cling to.

The other big drawback would be the prospect price tag.

With two years of club control after this season, Chisholm will cost something significant. In The Athletic recently, former MLB GM Jim Bowden suggested that the Marlins could look for a combination that included players such as righty Will Warren, the Yanks’ No. 7 prospect according to MLB.com and outfielders Everson Pereira (No. 5) and Jace Avina (No. 28). 

You can hear the Prospect Nerds howling now. Maybe the Yankees could add another farmhand and convince the Marlins to include a reliever, too. 

The Verdict

Yes, the Yankees already have enough injury issues on their club. But acquiring Chisholm does not make them older or puff up the payroll enormously.

He could help at two positions, add some flexibility for other moves at the deadline and crank up the team’s athleticism at a time when that quality is hyper-valuable in the game.

Maybe the Yanks can get the most out of a tooled-up player with exciting potential. Chisholm seems like the kind of player who would welcome playing in front of big crowds at Yankee Stadium.