Jazz Chisholm Jr. had hoped he would not be sent for a rehab assignment, but there he was last week with Double-A Somerset.
The minor league shortstop, who moved to second base and then center field with the Marlins, was traded to the Yankees last season and accepted a third base gig because it was best for the team.
This year he arrived in spring training believing his third base experiment was “done,” he said, only to be informed — before the rehab assignment that he would have preferred avoiding — that the Yankees wanted him to move across the diamond again.
“I just want to win. I want a ring,” Chisholm said after he walked the walk and slow-jogged the go-ahead home run in his return from the injured list.
Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
Chisholm loudly announced his return with a big swing and impressive work at third base, where he looked natural in the series-opening 3-2 victory over the Guardians in front of 40,683 on a gorgeous Tuesday night in The Bronx.
The Yankees (37-22) have won seven of nine and moved to 23-15 against teams that currently have a record of at least .500, relying upon two seventh-inning swings — the first from Chisholm — and shutdown pitching to dent the club they met in the ALCS last year.
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For the Yankees to return to the World Series and flip the result, they surely would need the kind of sacrifice and performance that Chisholm put forth over the past week.
Chisholm would rather play second base and is quicker than DJ LeMahieu, but manager Aaron Boone cited LeMahieu’s comfort level at second and Chisholm playing third base “really, really well” last season in explaining the new alignment.
Unspoken is the fact that Chisholm being capable at second base and third base would allow the Yankees to seek either a second baseman or third baseman at the trade deadline if LeMahieu does not hit or does not stay healthy.
So Chisholm did not complain, got reps with Somerset, was activated Tuesday and was tested early. In the third inning in a game in which Carlos Rodón was dealing, Chisholm backhanded a hard chopper from Angel Martinez down the third base line, threw across from foul territory and bounced a throw to Paul Goldschmidt, who made the nifty scoop.
“You can just see all the things he can do on the diamond,” Boone said of Chisholm, who broke up a no-hitter from Tanner Bibee in the fifth inning with a bloop single and then raced home from second on a LeMahieu single to score the game’s first run.
Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
For a while it felt as if that would be the only run Rodón needed. The lefty (seven innings of one-run ball) was excellent again, only allowing hits in the first and seventh innings and retiring 17 consecutive batters at one point, but was dented in his last inning.
José Ramírez chopped a well-placed single through the middle then stole second. David Fry sent a hard-hit ground ball to the right side, and LeMahieu — trying to prove his worth at second — dove for the ball, reached it in time but could not knock it down, deflecting it into right field for what became a game-tying single.
But Rodón escaped further damage in the inning, which mattered in the bottom half.
Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
The first pitch Chisholm saw in his third at-bat off the injured list was blasted to right field for a go-ahead home run, the 2-for-3 kind of night he envisioned while sidelined, right?
“Honestly, I pictured 3-for-3,” Chisholm said to laughs.
The dugout celebration had barely ceased when the next batter, Anthony Volpe, barreled a full-count sweeper from Bibee and sent it screaming to left field to add some insurance that a Luke Weaver-less bullpen ended up needing.
With the closer officially placed on the injured list earlier in the day, Mark Leiter Jr. pitched a scoreless eighth before Devin Williams survived a stressful ninth.
In his return to the closing role, Williams allowed a run — on a double from Carlos Santana and a soft single from Daniel Schneemann that found a hole in the right side — but he induced a fly out from Bo Naylor to strand the potential tying run on second.
The Yankees could exhale and celebrate with their new (and old) third baseman.
“It’s nice to have him back,” Rodón said of Chisholm.