NEW YORK — Heading into the 2026 season, Jazz Chisholm Jr. made a bold declaration. He told reporters he intended to chase a 50-homer, 50-stolen-base season, a feat only Shohei Ohtani has ever achieved. It sounded like the kind of confident talk that motivates a player heading into a contract year. Sixteen games into the season, it sounds like something else entirely.
Through 16 games, Chisholm is slashing .177/.227/.258 with zero home runs, three RBI, and a strikeout rate approaching 30 percent. His wRC+ of 41 is among the worst marks for any regular Yankees starter this season. The offense has not come. And the incidents away from the plate have made things considerably worse.
A rules blunder that rattled the Yankees fanbase
The single moment that crystallized the growing frustration around Chisholm came on April 12 against the Tampa Bay Rays. With the Yankees leading late, the Rays loaded the bases in the 10th inning. Jonathan Aranda hit a chopper toward Chisholm at second base. Cody Bellinger, playing in a five-man infield, tried to field it first but could not. Chisholm got the ball after a high bounce, but bobbled it and was unable to convert what would have been a game-ending double play. The Rays scored the winning run.
What followed was the part that set the Yankees fanbase on edge. When Chisholm spoke to reporters after the loss, he openly admitted he was not sure what the correct play was or whether the rules even allowed a tag-and-throw double play in that situation.
“I was really going to go try to tag the runner and just throw it to first. I don’t know what the rule is. If I went to first base first and threw it back to second, if it’s still an out. Is it still a double play? I don’t know.”
For a seven-year MLB veteran earning $10.2 million in 2026, the admission landed hard. Manager Aaron Boone publicly backed Chisholm after the game, telling reporters he believed Chisholm does know the rule and that the second baseman sometimes expresses himself in ways that invite unnecessary backlash. But even Boone’s defense did not fully quiet the criticism.
“We’ll talk,” Boone said. “He’s not confused. I think that’s his default answer when he’s got guys in front of him. I think he knows the rule.”
Plate struggles in a year he cannot afford them
The blown play was damaging, but the Yankees’ deeper concern is the bat. Chisholm posted 55 home runs, 71 stolen bases and a .786 OPS over the previous two seasons, earning a one-year, $10.2 million deal this offseason. In a contract year, those numbers were supposed to climb. Instead, he has eight hits and no home runs through 16 games. His .485 OPS ranks among the worst in the AL for regular starters. He has not begun a Yankees season or any season this badly since his 2020 Miami Marlins debut.
The Rays series also produced a separate on-field incident
The blown double play was not the only moment drawing attention from the Rays series. During an earlier game in Tampa, Chisholm reached second base and appeared to signal pitch location information to the batter at the plate, a common and legal practice in baseball. Rays starter Drew Rasmussen reacted visibly and angrily in the moment before the situation cooled down later in the game.
In isolation, that exchange is unremarkable. In the middle of a bad Yankees stretch with the fanbase already restless, it became one more item on a growing list of controversies. When a player is producing, minor flare-ups disappear. When he is hitting .180 for the Yankees, nothing does.
Contract year pressure adds another layer
The Yankees have not made any move toward extending Chisholm. That is not a surprise given the organization’s well-established reluctance to commit long-term dollars to players mid-contract. But it adds urgency to his situation. If he cannot find his swing, the Yankees may decide this season is the last chapter for both sides.
The Yankees front office is also watching George Lombard Jr., the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect at Double-A Somerset, who is a natural shortstop but versatile enough to eventually play second base. The Yankees are not going to rush a 20-year-old to the majors to replace a struggling veteran in April. But the option exists, and the longer Chisholm struggles, the more that conversation gains volume among Yankees fans.
The Yankees are 9-8 through 17 games and need production from the bottom of the lineup. Chisholm has the talent and the pedigree. He also has a strikeout rate near 30 percent, zero home runs, and a string of off-field incidents making it harder for the Yankees to absorb with patience.
What do you think about Chisholm’s performance in his contract year? How much should he get in his next deal?
Or Is the 50-50 guy is already playing his way out of New York in just his second season?
