Coming into the season, Jazz Chisholm Jr. was talking about a 50-50 season and an MVP award.
Instead, he is having the worst year of his career at the plate. He is hitting .216 with 17 home runs, just one year after a 30-30 season. What makes matters even worse for the Yankees and Chisholm is the fact that this is a contract year for him.
Not only has he cost himself a ton of money, but he has made it extremely difficult for the Yankees to justify paying him big to keep him around. Unfortunately for the Yankees, they do not have an internal option to play second base who would be better than Chisholm, even in a down year. He is a two-time All-Star, and his track record will likely help him get paid, but that does not change the fact that the Yankees need him to be better now.
“If I knew, I would already have fixed the problem,” Chisholm told The Athletic's Chris Kirschner. “Even when I think I’m getting going hitting, it’s still an out. I’m still hitting it right at someone. I can hit it 107 (mph) and still hit it right at someone.”
Chisholm has no answers to his problems at the plate. His hard-hit rate is actually about the same this year as last, but his barrel percentage is way down. His bat speed is about the same as well. However, the issue lies within his launch angle.
Last year, his groundball percentage was below 40% for the second time in a full season in his entire career. The only other time that happened was in 2022, when he was also an All-Star. This year, his ground ball percentage is 44.6%.
It's not easy to fix his launch angle, and it will take a lot of work and adjustment. He has already been making adjustments, trying to get it right, but nothing is working.
“I feel like I have a 40 percent whiff rate on every pitch right now,” Chisholm said. “I don’t know why. I swing up. I swing down. I’ve tried to fix it a couple of different ways. When I fix it, it’s still unlucky.”
His whiff rate is actually better than last year, but it just goes to show how he is feeling at the plate right now.