BRONX, N.Y. — Jazz Chisholm Jr. has the baseball world talking about a borrowed pair of pants and a teammate’s bat. The story is funny. The pose after Monday night’s homer was even funnier. But anyone listening to him in the Yankees clubhouse after Monday’s 7-6 win over the Toronto Blue Jays heard something else underneath the laugh.
Something quieter. Something heavier. Something that has nothing to do with wardrobe choices and everything to do with what happened in October 2025.
The Yankees second baseman is locked in. He has 10 hits, 4 RBIs and a 1.433 OPS over his last five games. He just delivered his fourth consecutive multi-hit game. The bat is hot. The vibes are right. And the story everyone is chasing is about Giancarlo Stanton’s pants and Jose Caballero’s bat.
But Chisholm himself revealed what is really powering this run. And it is not what you think.
The lucky combo everyone is talking about
The pants story started a few weeks ago. Chisholm was sitting at .203 with a .607 OPS through 43 games when he tried something different. He borrowed a pair of baggy pants from outfielder Trent Grisham for a series in Houston. He went 5-for-12 across three games. The bat woke up.
By Friday night at Citi Field, he could not find Grisham’s pants. Giancarlo Stanton, on the injured list with a right calf strain, had a pair sitting in his locker. Chisholm grabbed them, had No. 13 stitched on with his own number, and stepped to the plate.
He went 3-for-4 with a double, a walk, a stolen base and two RBIs in the Yankees’ 5-2 Subway Series win.
On Monday against Toronto, he added Jose Caballero’s bat to the routine. The result was a 339-foot, 101.9 mph home run that caromed off the left field foul pole in the seventh inning, giving the Yankees a 7-5 lead and propelling them past the Blue Jays.
Chisholm, asked whether this was now permanent, did not hesitate.
“It will always be [Stanton’s pants] and Jose’s bat,” Chisholm said.
What Aaron Boone sees in the swing
Boone has watched Chisholm go through nearly the entire spectrum a hitter can travel in seven weeks. He spent most of April pressing. He was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in a 7-0 loss to the Orioles on May 11. He could not find his timing. The Yankees benched him for a day against Trevor Rogers.
When asked Monday what was actually behind Chisholm’s recent breakthrough, the Yankees manager offered a more traditional explanation than the wardrobe theory.
“Jazz started swinging better the last few days,” Boone said. “He stayed on a couple [pitches Sunday] against [the] Mets where he drove the ball that way, too.”
Boone added that the recent surge was a return to form rather than a transformation.
“He was missing pitches he usually hits,” Boone said. “Now we’re seeing him come to the level with a really good player. I don’t think he was that far off, but I don’t think he [was] swinging the bat that well.”
As for the pants and the bat, Boone shrugged it off.
“Whatever he’s got to do,” Boone said.
The third factor Chisholm doesn’t talk about often
Here is the part of the story that does not show up in the home run distance, the exit velocity, or the launch angle. Monday night was the first time the Yankees and Blue Jays had stood on the same field since Toronto eliminated New York in four games during the 2025 American League Division Series. Chisholm walked into the matchup with that history sitting in his chest.
After the game, in comments shared on X, Chisholm acknowledged what most of his teammates have not said publicly. The October loss has not faded inside the Yankees clubhouse. It is fuel.
“Especially losing to them in the playoffs, every time we see them, we have that feeling,” Chisholm said. “I know a couple other guys in the clubhouse have that feeling of ‘we owe you something.'”
That comment landed differently than the pants story. This was not lighthearted clubhouse comedy. This was a player saying out loud what every Yankees fan watching Monday’s game already suspected. The 2025 ALDS still hurts. And the Blue Jays just provided the matchup that turns hurt into output.
Chisholm’s pole-banger landed two batters after Cody Bellinger tied the game with a two-run shot to right-center field. The Yankees had trailed 5-3 entering the seventh. They left the inning ahead 7-5 in front of a Yankee Stadium crowd that has been waiting since October for this exact reckoning.
Why this matters for the Yankees
The Yankees entered Monday at 28-19, second in the AL East and three games behind the Tampa Bay Rays. They had just absorbed a 2-7 road trip through Milwaukee, Baltimore and Queens. The bullpen had blown two late leads. The rotation had lost Max Fried. The clubhouse needed a win that mattered.
Chisholm gave them one. And so did the broader lineup. Paul Goldschmidt also went deep. Bellinger delivered the equalizer. David Bednar walked the leadoff hitter in the ninth, then surrendered an RBI double to Jesus Sanchez, before finally striking out George Springer and retiring Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on a routine grounder to Chisholm at second base to nail down his 11th save.
The Yankees won Monday because their best players carried them. The Yankees won because Chisholm has rediscovered his swing. And the Yankees won because somewhere underneath the laughter about pants and bats, Chisholm and his teammates are playing with a feeling no piece of clothing can manufacture.
Stanton’s pants will be on Chisholm’s legs. Caballero’s bat will be in his hands. And so will the memory of October, which is the part of this story Chisholm finally said out loud.
Can Chisholm get an extension with the Yankees? What do you think?
