NEW YORK — The Yankees keep waiting for Jazz Chisholm Jr. to look like the player he promised to be.
He promised a 50-homer, 50-steal season. Instead, the second baseman has been one of the most frustrating players on the roster. He entered this week hitting .216 with a career-worst strikeout rate, and he has been mired in a deep August slump.
The Yankees need offense. Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Cody Bellinger have all missed time, and the lineup has ranked among the worst in baseball since early July. Every empty at-bat from a regular is magnified.
Chisholm is also a free agent at season’s end, which makes his struggles a question about both this year and next. The Yankees have not benched him. But quietly, the organization may already have a ready-made alternative sitting one level below the majors.
His name is Marco Luciano. And he is hitting .300 in the high minors while playing the exact positions the Yankees need covered.
A former top prospect reborn in the minors
Luciano is not a household name in the Bronx, but he was once one of the most hyped prospects in baseball. He signed with the San Francisco Giants for $2.6 million out of the Dominican Republic in 2018 and later climbed as high as No. 13 on MLB Pipeline’s top 100 list. The bat was always the calling card.
His path to the Yankees was chaotic. Over a single offseason, Luciano was cut loose by the Giants, claimed and then designated by the Pittsburgh Pirates, claimed and designated by the Baltimore Orioles, and finally claimed by the Yankees in January. New York outrighted him off the 40-man roster in February, and he cleared waivers to stay in the organization.
He has turned that limbo into a breakout. Luciano opened the season at Double-A Somerset and destroyed it, posting a slugging percentage above .700 in a short stint before a promotion to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He briefly landed on the injured list in May but returned in June and kept hitting. The results have been loud at both stops, and the underlying contact has carried level to level.
The numbers behind the .300 case
Through Tuesday, Luciano is hitting .300 with a .389 on-base percentage and a .937 OPS across the two levels this season. He has 19 home runs, 53 RBIs, 69 runs scored and 97 hits in 323 at-bats. The power and the on-base skills have both shown up against advanced pitching, and the strikeout rate that dogged him earlier in his career has been more manageable this year.
The profile fits a specific need. Luciano is a right-handed bat on a lineup that leans heavily left-handed. He has played shortstop, second base and the outfield, giving him the flexibility to slot in at Chisholm’s position or elsewhere. He does not turn 25 until September, so the age still points up rather than down.
The one clear caveat is his major league track record. In 41 games with the Giants across 2023 and 2024, Luciano hit just .217 with a .590 OPS in 115 at-bats. That thin big-league resume is why he has been available at all, and why the Yankees can still view him as an unproven bet rather than a sure thing.
Why the timing lines up for the Yankees
The case for a look is straightforward. Chisholm has not produced, and the club cannot keep running an unproductive bat out every day while chasing a postseason spot. A platoon or a short audition for Luciano would cost the team little and could reveal something real.
Chisholm brings speed, defense and flashes of star-level power, and he remains the starter for now. But his season has been defined by inconsistency, mental lapses on the bases and a strikeout problem that has not improved. His most recent slump has dropped his production to a career-worst level, and he has been picked off and caught in avoidable moments. The pitching staff has repeatedly bailed out that offensive drought, but that formula has limits in September.
Luciano offers a different kind of value. Even a modest big-league contribution from a cost-controlled bat would help a lineup starved for production. If he hits, the Yankees may have found a piece for both the stretch run and 2027.
With Chisholm set to hit free agency and Luciano forcing the issue with his bat, the decision may come down to how much longer the Yankees are willing to wait.
The pieces are in place for a change. Whether the Yankees make one is the story to watch down the stretch.
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