Yankees Notes: Schmidt, Volpe, Chisholm, Lombard
The Yankees were expected to send right-hander Clarke Schmidt to the mound against the Rays yesterday, but the right-hander wound up scratched from his start. MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch notes that Schmidt told reporters that he’s dealing with some soreness in his left side, but fortunately it appears to be fairly minor. Hoch adds that Schmidt even told the Yankees he would be able to take the ball yesterday, but the club opted to scratch him and push his start back to this coming Tuesday. Chris Kirschner of The Athletic notes that, per manager Aaron Boone, Schmidt underwent an MRI that came back clearn, suggesting the issue is a minor one.
That Schmidt’s soreness appears to be fairly manageable is surely a huge relief for New York. With Gerrit Cole out for the year and both Luis Gil and Marcus Stroman currently shelved with injuries of their own, losing Schmidt just three starts into his 2025 season would be a brutal blow for the Yanks. Allan Winans remains in Triple-A as a potential spot starter option, but the club’s depth is largely being used in the rotation already with Carlos Carrasco and Will Warren currently getting regular starts.
Schmidt’s 14 2/3 innings of work so far this year have hardly been inspiring, but it’s worth remembering that he’s just one year removed from posting a sterling 2.85 ERA and 3.58 FIP across 16 starts. That strong performance in 2024 suggested front-half of the rotation potential within Schmidt, and perhaps being careful with the side issue he’s currently dealing with is the best way to tap into as much of that potential as possible in a season where little is working within the club’s rotation aside from Max Fried.
Turning to the other major Yankees injury news from yesterday, Anthony Volpe had a bit of an injury scare in the eighth inning of yesterday’s game. Hoch writes that Volpe heard a “pop” in his left shoulder while attempting to field a grounder.
“It happened quick and it was scary, but after that, I felt OK and I felt like I had my strength,” Volpe said, as relayed by Hoch. “I’ve never really had anything else pop or dislocate or anything like that, so I have nothing to compare it to.”
As Hoch notes, those encouraging early comments can’t necessarily be taken as gospel just days after Volpe’s double play partner Jazz Chisholm Jr. expressed optimism that his injury was a fairly minor one just before being placed on the injured list for what figures to be a four-to-six week absence. An MRI of Chisholm’s oblique revealed three high-grade tears in the area, though fortunately the volume of tears does not appear to have significantly altered Chisholm’s timetable for return as the second baseman still expects to return in that four-to-six week time frame.
Chisholm’s injury is already testing the club’s middle infield depth and forcing a combination of Jorbit Vivas and Pablo Reyes to handle the keystone for the foreseeable future. That makes the idea of an injury for Volpe all the more concerning, but Hoch suggested that the shortstop will likely be sent for an MRI before he’s fully cleared to play again despite the fact that he finished yesterday’s game and already underwent an x-ray that revealed no structural damage. (UPDATE: Manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including Hoch) this morning that Volpe is day-to-day after the club received “good news” from his MRI exam.)
Even if the Yankees weren’t already suffering from a dearth of infield depth, losing Volpe would be a serious blow given that he’s putting up such encouraging numbers on offense. After Volpe’s first two years saw him post well-below offensive numbers buoyed by Gold Glove-caliber defense at shortstop, the 24-year-old is actually hitting an impressive .233/.326/.442 with ten doubles, five homers, and a 10.6% walk rate in 33 games. That’s good for a 121 wRC+ so far this year, and Volpe’s excellent batted ball data suggests he may actually be producing less than his underlying performance would suggest he should be. It’s an exciting potential breakout performance for the Yanks, and the fans in the Bronx are surely waiting with bated breath for their potential budding star at shortstop to return to the lineup.
All the injuries piling up for the Yankees in the rotation and around the infield likely have many fans operating with one eye on the July 31 trade deadline. There’s plenty of room for improvement on this Yankees club, but there’s at least one prospect the club is expected to keep out of trade talks this summer as they pursue back-to-back World Series appearances after losing in five games to the Dodgers in last year’s Fall Classic. According to Brendan Kuty of The Athletic, that prospect is young infielder George Lombard Jr.
As relayed by Kuty, the club does not expect Lombard to help in the majors this year but nonetheless he’s viewed by some evaluators as the club’s only “untouchable” prospect, with Kuty suggesting that it would require a “Godfather” offer to convince the Yankees to part with the young infielder. Still just 19 until next month, Lombard was the club’s first-rounder back in 2023 and is so far hitting an excellent .329/.496/.488 at the High-A level this year, with a promotion to Double-A at some point in the near future potentially in the cards.
Given that the Yankees (per Kuty) viewed Lombard as untouchable last season, when he slashed just .231/.338/.334 across two levels of A-ball, it’s hardly a shock that they aren’t inclined to trade him now that he appears to have broken out in such a substantial way. Still, with controllable aces like Pablo Lopez already seeing their names swirl in the rumor mill, refusing to part with Lombard could make it difficult for the Yankees to land a top-flight starter this summer in what figures to be a very competitive market for pitching talent.
Yankees Place Jazz Chisholm Jr. On Injured List
3:05pm: Boone says Chisholm’s strain is of the high-grade variety and he might miss four to six weeks, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com.
8:51am: The Yankees announced this morning that infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. is headed to the 10-day injured list due to a right oblique strain. The move is retroactive to April 30. Fellow infielder Jorbit Vivas has been recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to take Chisholm’s spot on the active roster.
Chisholm exited Tuesday’s game with discomfort in his side and sat out Wednesday’s contest. Manager Aaron Boone revealed earlier this week that Chisholm would undergo an MRI on Thursday’s off-day. That imaging clearly revealed enough for the Yankees to sit Chisholm down for the next week-plus. The team hasn’t formally provided a timetable for Chisholm’s return yet, though even Grade 1 oblique strains can sideline players for upwards of a month. There are instances of players making it back from very mild strains sooner than that, of course. Boone will surely provide more information on Chisholm’s injury outlook prior to tonight’s game.
The 27-year-old Chisholm has hit for plenty of power this season but has been far more strikeout-prone than he was in 2024. He’s slashing .181/.304/.410 with seven homers, three doubles, six steals (in seven attempts) and a career-best 12% walk rate. He’s also fanned in what would be a career-high 31.2% of his plate appearances and been dinged by a .200 average on balls in play — hence the low batting average.
Even with the basement-level batting average, Chisholm’s approach at the plate doesn’t look as alarming as one might expect. He’s actually chasing pitches out of the strike zone at the lowest clip of his career. His 21.1% chase rate sits nearly seven percentage points lower than league-average. In general, Chisholm is seeing more pitches than ever before. He’s swinging at a career-low 41.1% of the pitches he sees, and his 4.27 pitches per plate appearance is both a career-high mark and the 24th-highest among 168 qualified hitters.
The driving factor behind his strikeouts is easier to explain than to fix: Chisholm’s contact rate on pitches within the zone has cratered from 80.7% last year to 72.5% this season. (League average is just over 85%.) Chisholm’s strikeout rate had actually begun to come down in recent weeks; he’s fanned in one-quarter of his plate appearances over his past 80 trips to the plate — right in line with his 2024 levels — so perhaps the spike in punchouts can be chalked up to some early-season white noise. Time will tell.
In the meantime, Vivas will get his third recall to the majors and hope to finally be plugged into to the lineup this time. He’s been summoned to MLB two times in the past, but Boone has yet to write the 24-year-old’s name on the lineup card or even send him into a game as a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner or defensive replacement.
Vivas is doing his best to force the issue in Triple-A. He’s had a superb start to his 2025 season, batting .319/.426/.436 (139 wRC+) with a pair of home runs, five doubles, six steals (in 10 attempts) and more walks (12.9%) than strikeouts (6.9%). The lefty-swinging Vivas, acquired from the Dodgers in the 2023-24 offseason, can play both second and third base.
Yankees Planning To Play Jasson Dominguez In Left Field
Yankees manager Aaron Boone appeared on WFAN with Brandon Tierney and Sal Licata this afternoon. He fielded a few questions about the team’s position player mix.
Boone indicated that his starting outfield was likely to comprise Jasson Domínguez in left field, Cody Bellinger in center, and Aaron Judge in right. Trent Grisham is ticketed for a fourth outfield role. The eighth-year skipper suggested he hoped to keep Domínguez mostly in left field while using Bellinger a bit more flexibly. He noted that there’ll be days when Judge serves as a designated hitter while Giancarlo Stanton gets a day off. In those instances, Grisham would likely draw into center field with Bellinger kicking over to right.
The most notable aspect is that the Yankees are preparing for Domínguez to get everyday run. Owner Hal Steinbrenner made similar comments in an interview with Meredith Marakovitz of the YES Network this afternoon. “I see him as the starting left fielder,” Steinbrenner replied when asked about Domínguez’s role. “There’ll be a lot of meetings and discussions in Spring Training obviously and we’ll see how he performs and how he feels, but everybody’s very excited about him.”
Domínguez, who turns 22 next month, should be ticketed for his first extended big league audition. He drilled four homers in eight games as a 20-year-old back in 2023. An elbow injury then ended his season and required Tommy John surgery that shelved him into the middle of June. New York seemed reluctant to give Domínguez regular run fresh off the injury. He bounced on and off the active roster for the final six weeks of the season, though the Yanks stuck with Alex Verdugo as their everyday player in left field. Domínguez got into 18 games and struggled to a .179/.313/.304 slash.
The switch-hitting outfielder remains one of the game’s top young talents. Baseball America ranked Domínguez as New York’s top prospect and among the sport’s 30 best prospects on their updated Top 100 list. He has been a strong performer in the minors. Domínguez has a .253/.360/.430 line across parts of three Double-A seasons and carries a huge .325/.391/.495 mark in 230 plate appearances with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Boone added that with the current roster makeup, he views Jazz Chisholm Jr. as the starter at second base. He named DJ LeMahieu, Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza as players who could battle for playing time at third base. New York has been linked to free agents Jorge Polanco and Brendan Rodgers, so there’s still a chance for an acquisition to push Chisholm back to the hot corner.
Chisholm has only started two games at second base since 2022. He played there regularly with the Marlins early in his career before moving to center field. Miami brought him back into the infield shortly before last summer’s deadline in a thinly veiled effort to expand his versatility to trade partners.
The Yankees acquired him and installed him at third base in deference to Gleyber Torres. Chisholm played his first 400 career innings at the hot corner in the Bronx. Statcast graded him highly in that sample, though Defensive Runs Saved had him slightly below average. Both metrics have given Chisholm plus grades for his second base work. He has a little more than 1300 career innings at the position, most of which came between 2021-22.
Yankees Reinstate Jazz Chisholm
August 23: The Yankees have now made it official by announcing Chisholm’s reinstatement.
August 22: The Yankees will activate Jazz Chisholm Jr. from the injured list tomorrow, reports Andy Martino of SNY (on X). New York optioned Oswald Peraza back to Triple-A this evening to open an active roster spot.
It’s a remarkably quick turnaround. Chisholm’s season initially looked as if it could be in jeopardy when he damaged the UCL in his left (non-throwing elbow) a couple weeks ago. The Yankees quickly made clear they expected Chisholm back this year, although they didn’t anticipate this level of progress. As recently as last Friday, New York’s big deadline acquisition was reportedly targeting a return at some point in September.
Barring a last-minute change of plans, Chisholm will instead get back on the diamond after a minimal stint. He’ll draw back in at third base, where Peraza and Oswaldo Cabrera have split the work over the last week and a half. That could be a significant boost to the New York lineup. Chisholm had been on an absolute tear early in his tenure in the Bronx. He already has seven homers with a .316/.361/.702 slash in 14 games as a Yankee.
Chisholm isn’t the only player who should soon return to the Yankee infield. Anthony Rizzo and Jon Berti are each scheduled to begin rehab assignments in the next few days (per the MLB.com injury tracker). Berti is headed to Double-A Somerset tomorrow; Rizzo is expected to join him there at some point this weekend. Position players can spend up to 20 days on a minor league rehab assignment.
Both Berti and Rizzo are on the 60-day injured list and have been out for multiple months. The former has only played in 17 games since the Yankees acquired him from Miami in a trade around Opening Day. Berti has been out since late May after suffering a significant strain in his left calf. Rizzo broke his right arm in a collision with Red Sox pitcher Brennan Bernardino in mid-June.
The Yankees called up 25-year-old Ben Rice to handle the majority of the first base work after that. Rice has struggled in his first look at MLB pitching, running a .180/.279/.374 slash. The rookie had a three-homer game against Boston last month but only has four longballs in his other 44 contests.
Yankees Hopeful Jazz Chisholm Jr. Can Return In September
Yankees infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. has been prescribed rest and rehab for the UCL injury in his left elbow and is expected to play again this season, per Jon Heyman and Greg Joyce of the New York Post. He’ll likely still be sidelined into September, but it’s clearly good news for the Yanks that their most impactful deadline pickup won’t require immediate surgery and could return down the stretch.
Chisholm hit the injured list just two days ago after suffering a left elbow strain on a slide into home plate. As we’ve seen in the past with position players, it’s possible to play through ligament damage in the non-throwing elbow without being greatly impacted at the plate. (Both Shohei Ohtani and Bryce Harper have had productive stretches at the plate despite ligament injuries that required eventual surgery.) That’ll be the goal for the Yankees and Chisholm in the short term. There has yet to be any indication that eventual offseason surgery has been expressly ruled out. Presumably, that’ll hinge on how Chisholm’s elbow responds to the rest. Most — but certainly not all — sprains of the UCL do eventually require surgical repair.
The 26-year-old Chisholm has been a force in the Yankees’ lineup since being acquired from the Marlins in exchange for a prospect package headlined by young catcher Agustin Ramirez. In 14 games and 61 plate appearances, he’s ripped an incredible seven home runs while batting .316/.361/.702. That surge propelled Chisholm to 20 homers, and the five bases he’s swiped along the way have him at 27 steals on the year. It’s the first 20-20 season of the Bahamian-born infielder’s career.
Chisholm’s power-speed blend and potential for a 20-20 or even 30-30 season have long been apparent, but he’s been too prone to injury to realize that type of production until the 2024 campaign. He’s previously dealt with shoulder, back, foot and oblique injuries that limited him to a total of 281 games in three seasons from 2021-23. His latest injury appears that it’ll lead to another absence of some note, but if Chisholm is back for even half of September, he’d have time to surpass his previous career-high 124 games in a big league season.
The Yankees control Chisholm via arbitration through the 2026 season. He’s earning $2.625MM in 2024 and will be due a pair of raises in the next two offseasons. Chisholm has served as their primary third baseman since being acquired, although with Gleyber Torres slated to become a free agent at season’s end, a return to second base for Chisholm next season could be in the cards. His hot streak with the Yankees has boosted his season line from roughly average to a more productive .257/.328/.445, and Chisholm now touts a similar .254/.319/.468 slash with 53 long balls and 61 stolen bases through 1115 plate appearances dating back to 2022.
Yankees Designate Enyel De Los Santos For Assignment
The Yankees announced today that infielder Oswald Peraza and right-hander Will Warren have been recalled to the active roster. One spot was opened by infielder/outfielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. landing on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to August 13, with a left elbow sprain. That injury and Chisholm’s expected IL placement were both previously reported. The other roster spot was opened by right-hander Enyel De Los Santos being designated for assignment. Additionally, the Yanks added that righty Lou Trivino will begin a rehab assignment with Double-A Somerset.
It’s a very quick turnaround for De Los Santos, 28, who was just acquired prior to the deadline a couple of weeks ago. The Yankees sent outfielder Brandon Lockridge to the Padres in order to acquire De Los Santos and minor league pitcher Thomas Balboni.
It seems that the buyer’s remorse set in very quickly, as things didn’t go well for De Los Santos after swapping his Padre pinstripes for the Yankee variety. After the trade, he tossed 6 1/3 innings over five appearances, allowing 10 earned runs in that time. He struck out five opponents while walking three of them.
The Yankees were rained out on Friday and played a double-header on Saturday, meaning their five starters have each pitched in the past four days. They needed Warren to come up and make a spot start today, which required a corresponding move. The only member of their bullpen that can be optioned is Jake Cousins, who has a 2.25 ERA on the season. Rather than send Cousins down, they have decided to bump De Los Santos off the 40-man roster not too long after trading for him.
Since the deadline has now passed, the Yankees will have no choice but to put De Los Santos on waivers in the coming days. Although his results have clearly been poor since coming to the Bronx, it seems likely that some other club will look beyond that and put in a claim based on his previous work.
From the start of 2022 and up until the trade, the righty actually posted some strong numbers between the Guardians and Padres. He tossed 159 1/3 innings in that time with a 3.50 ERA, 26.4% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate.
Meaningful roster upgrades are difficult to come by at this post-deadline part of the calendar, so a club looking for bullpen reinforcements will probably put in a claim. That might not even need to be a contending club, as De Los Santos is making just $1.16MM this year and can be retained via arbitration for two additional seasons.
Waiver priority goes in reverse order of the standings, so the teams with the worst records will have first dibs. Even a team out of contention might take a shot on De Los Santos given those two extra years of control. But if they all pass, some club in a playoff race could benefit with a fresh arm that has had some success in recent seasons, Yankee tenure notwithstanding.
Cutting bait on De Los Santos will cut into the club’s bullpen depth, but they are about to backfill some of that with Trivino. The righty underwent Tommy John surgery in May of last year and missed all of the 2023 season. He hit free agency and the Yanks re-signed him on a one-year deal with a $1.5MM guarantee and a $5MM club option for 2025, plus bonuses and escalators that kick in at 15 appearances this year.
Prior to this lengthy injury layoff, he put up some strong numbers. Most of that came with the Athletics, though he also came over to the Yankees at the 2022 deadline as part of the Frankie Montas trade. Overall, he has 284 2/3 innings under his belt with a 3.86 ERA. His 10.6% walk rate is a bit high but his 24.5% strikeout rate and 47.4% ground ball rate are both strong.
Yankees Planning To Place Jazz Chisholm On IL With UCL Injury
The Yankees are likely to place Jazz Chisholm Jr. on the 10-day injured list with an injury to the UCL in his left elbow, manager Aaron Boone told the New York beat (relayed on X by Chris Kirschner of the Athletic). The organization is unsure whether Chisholm will need to undergo surgery.
If there’s a silver lining, it’s that the injury is to Chisholm’s non-throwing arm. It’s nevertheless a tough blow that’ll subtract the Yankees’ key deadline acquisition from the lineup. Chisholm has gotten out to an excellent start to his time in the Bronx. He already has seven homers in 14 games. He’s hitting .316/.361/.702 across 61 trips to the plate since the trade.
Chisholm had connected on 13 longballs with Miami. This is his first major league campaign reaching the 20-homer mark. He has also swiped 27 bases (including a perfect 5-5 showing with the Yankees) and now carries an above-average .257/.328/.445 slash line on the year. The Yankees have won nine of 14 games since Chisholm joined the team. They enter play tonight half a game behind the Orioles for the top spot in the AL East. Baltimore is tied with the Guardians for the #1 seed in the American League, so that’s very much in play for New York as well.
While Chisholm had spent his entire Marlins career in the middle of the diamond (primarily at second base or in center field), he has moved to the hot corner in the Bronx. Chisholm has been in the starting lineup for all 14 games since the Yankees acquired him. Thirteen of those have come at third base, while he has made one start in center field. The hot corner has been a problem for New York all season. Yankee third basemen aside from Chisholm have hit .231/.292/.320 through 419 trips to the plate.
Oswaldo Cabrera and DJ LeMahieu have gotten the bulk of that work and neither has hit at a league average level. The Yankees have deployed LeMahieu as the right-handed half of a first base platoon with lefty-swinging Ben Rice lately. That could point to Cabrera, who gets the nod there tonight against White Sox righty Jonathan Cannon, as the primary option if Chisholm goes on the shelf. Oswald Peraza, who is hitting .244/.352/.384 in a fairly pedestrian Triple-A campaign, is on the 40-man roster. So is Jorbit Vivas, whom the Yankees acquired in an offseason trade with the Dodgers. The Yankees briefly called Vivas up around the All-Star Break but didn’t get him into a game. He’s hitting .242/.379/.374 over 58 Triple-A contests.
The Yankees can no longer turn to the trade market for anything more than a minor league depth pickup. Amed Rosario is headed to the waiver wire after being designated for assignment by the Dodgers last night. If Chisholm is out for an extended stretch, the Yankees could look to put in a claim for the righty-hitting infielder. New York is behind everyone other than the Phillies, Guardians and Orioles in the waiver priority, though. There’s a good chance that another team claims Rosario before the Yankees get an opportunity.
Yankees Interested In Tommy Edman
The Yankees are among the teams that have inquired with the Cardinals regarding the availability of infielder/outfielder Tommy Edman, according to The Athletic’s Katie Woo. The Yankees join the Dodgers, whose interest in Edman’s services was discussed earlier today, in inquiring after the versatile switch-hitter.
Edman, 29, has yet to make his season debut in the majors after undergoing wrist surgery last fall. The recovery from that surgery has taken much longer than expected, and while he’s begun a rehab assignment at the Double-A level, that’s come entirely as a DH. It seems unlikely that Edman, who hit just .248/.307/.399 in 137 games for the Cardinals last year, would garner much interest from any club as a DH-only player. Any suitor would likely need to be confident of Edman’s ability to play the field for them this year in order to make a deal.
While his health status is something of a question mark, it’s hardly a surprise that the Yankees would be interested in Edman’s services. After all, the versatile defender has experience at every position on the diamond besides first base and catcher and has shown the ability to be a plus glove at each of those positions. That combination of versatility and defensive excellence is rather rare and, in conjunction with a switch-hitting bat that has produced an almost exactly league average wRC+ of 99 throughout his career, it would make Edman a valuable piece for almost any team. The Yankees, who have gotten below average production from virtually every spot in the lineup not occupied by Juan Soto or Aaron Judge this year, are no exception to that.
It may seem as though the recent deal that sent infielder/outfielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. to the Bronx would leave the Yankees without much motivation to acquire Edman. After all, Chisholm is another versatile defender who has experience at both shortstop and center field, and his 103 wRC+ this year is significantly better than the 92 wRC+ Edman posted with the Cardinals in 2023. It’s easy to imagine both players co-existing in the same lineup, however. After all, manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including Brendan Kuty of The Athletic) earlier today that the club plans to use Chisholm at third base when he’s playing the infield. It’s a position that Chisholm has never played before in the majors, but Boone expressed a preference for keeping incumbent second baseman Gleyber Torres (who also has no experience at the hot corner) where he is, at least for the time being.
The addition of Edman, who has 94 games at third in the majors under his belt, could allow the Yankees to add a more experienced glove to the lineup at the hot corner while still providing a significant offensive upgrade over other internal options like DJ LeMahieu and Oswaldo Cabrera. By adding Edman to the mix at third base, the club could either utilize Chisholm as a super-utility type to maximize the club’s offensive production by resting players like Torres and Alex Verdugo against tough matchups, or perhaps the club could even look to deal a bat like Torres or Trent Grisham in order to acquire bullpen help as they’ve been rumored to be considering. Edman could also pair with Chisholm to offer some additional certainty to the Yankees headed into a 2025 season where Soto, Torres, Verdugo, and potentially Anthony Rizzo could all be ticketed for free agency, leaving plenty of holes to fill in the Bronx.
That doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be obstacles to a potential deal, however, even if Edman is healthy enough to be worth dealing for. According to Woo, the Cardinals are believed to be targeting “cost-controlled major-league starting pitching” in return for Edman’s services, with Woo suggesting that St. Louis could target Yankees southpaw Nestor Cortes in return. Cortes, 29, is controlled through the end of the 2025 season just like Edman is and has posted a 4.13 ERA with a 3.99 FIP in 22 starts this year. It’s unclear if the Yankees would be willing to part ways with Cortes or any of their starting pitching options, particularly as rumors swirl surrounding the possibility of them acquiring another arm that would allow them to manage Luis Gil‘s innings with a second-half bullpen assignment.
Yankees Designate J.D. Davis For Assignment
The Yankees announced this afternoon that they’ve activated infielder/outfielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. after acquiring him from the Marlins yesterday. Chisholm will take the place of infielder J.D. Davis on the active roster, as the club designated him for assignment today to make room for their new acquisition. The Yankees’ 40-man roster now stands at 39.
Davis, 31, was acquired by the Yankees in a trade with the A’s late last month. It’s been a tumultuous year for the slugger, as he kicked off 2024 by heading to an arbitration hearing with the Giants. Davis won that hearing but was controversially released by San Francisco after they signed Matt Chapman to play third base instead. Davis wound up signing with the A’s just two weeks before the season began and managed to secure a guarantee of just $2.5MM from Oakland, a far cry from his previously-awarded arbitration salary even after factoring in the roughly $1.1MM in termination pay he received from San Francisco.
On the field, Davis performed decently for them with a 96 wRC+ in 39 games while splitting time between first base, third base, and DH but he eventually found himself on the outside looking in when he was DFA’d as the club opted to give more playing time at the hot corner to Abraham Toro and Tyler Nevin. A move to the Bronx seemed to suggest he could find more playing time going forward amid injuries to Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo, but haven’t turned out that way as he’s appeared in just seven games with the club over the past month and has hit an anemic .105/.227/.158 in that limited playing time. Club manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch) today that Stanton is expected to return to the lineup as soon as tomorrow, meaning even that limited playing time was likely to dry up for Davis in the coming days.
While Davis’s 2024 season has been a brutal one, prior to 2024 he’d been a consistently above-average hitter ever since first taking a regular role with the Mets back in 2019. In five seasons with the Mets and Giants between 2019 and 2023, Davis slashed a strong .268/.352/.443 with a 120 wRC+, flashed 20-homer power and walked at a 10.2% clip despite an elevated 27.2% strikeout rate. That type of production could be a useful addition to plenty of teams, particularly those in need of help at first or third base. The Yankees will have one week to attempt to pass Davis through waivers, and if he goes unclaimed he would have the opportunity to elect free agency in favor of accepting an outright assignment. Of course, it’s possible that the club tries to put together a trade involving Davis prior to the upcoming trade deadline on Tuesday, and it seems likely they’ll wait to waive Davis until after the deadline in order to explore his market fully.
Yankees Acquire Jazz Chisholm Jr.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. is on his way to the Big Apple. The Yankees announced they’ve acquired Chisholm from the Marlins for three prospects: catcher Agustin Ramirez and infielders Jared Serna and Abrahan Ramirez.
Chisholm, 26, was a consensus top-100 prospect when the Marlins acquired him from the Diamondbacks in the deal that sent right-hander Zac Gallen to Arizona. While Gallen has blossomed into one of the NL’s top starters since arriving in the desert, Chisholm’s time in Miami has been far less consistent. After a rookie 2021 campaign where he split time between shortstop and second base with roughly league average offense, Chisholm committed to second full-time in 2022 and broke out in a big way with an excellent .254/.325/.535 (136 wRC+) slash line that year. Unfortunately, Chisholm’s All-Star campaign was cut short by a stress fracture in his back that limited him to just 60 games that year.
That injury combined with the Marlins’ lack of quality options in the outfield led Miami to move Chisholm out of the infield ahead of the 2023 season, installing him in center field. The results of that experiment were somewhat mixed, as Chisholm took a step backwards on offense with a 103 wRC+ and was limited to just 97 games by a bout of turf toe but proved to be surprisingly solid defensively in center with +4 Outs Above Average, although Defensive Runs Saved disagreed with that assessment and graded him as one of the ten worst outfield defenders in the sport last year with a -14 figure. Chisholm’s offense hasn’t rebounded much in 2024 as he’s slashing .249/.323/.407 (104 wRC+) on the year, but his defensive metrics have settled in a bit more to paint him as a roughly scratch defender (+1 OAA, -4 DRS) in center field. Perhaps most importantly, the youngster has stayed healthy and on the field this year as he’s appeared in 101 of Miami’s 104 games while even getting some work in at second base again in recent weeks.
Chisholm’s versatility is surely part of what makes him an attractive addition for the Yankees. While Aaron Judge and Juan Soto‘s otherworldly 2024 campaigns have kept the Yankees offense afloat for the most part to this point and allowed the club to post a solid 60-45 record overall, they’ve gone just 6-13 in the month of July thanks in part to a lackluster supporting cast that has seen only catcher Austin Wells post above average numbers by measure of wRC+ among healthy Yankees players with at least 100 PA this year not named Judge or Soto.
With so many spots in the lineup that could do with an upgrade, Chisholm’s slightly better than average bat and versatility figure to be a major asset for the Yankees. SNY’s Andy Martino was among those to suggest following news of the trade that Chisholm’s position with the Yankees is not yet fully set in stone, and it’s easy to see why. Chisholm’s ability to play center could allow manager Aaron Boone to turn to struggling left fielder Alex Verdugo, who has posted a wRC+ of just 56 since the start of June, less often while pushing Judge to a less taxing spot in the outfield or perhaps even allowing him to DH on days where both Chisholm and Verdugo are roaming the outfield.
On the other hand, Gleyber Torres is having a relative down season (96 wRC+) as the club’s regular second baseman and third base has been a massive hole for the Yankees all season, though neither Torres nor Chisholm have any experience at the hot corner in the majors. Given Torres’s excellent 119 wRC+ against lefties and Verdugo’s brutal 63 wRC+ against fellow southpaws this season, it’s possible even to imagine Chisholm (who sports a decent 96 wRC+ against southpaws in spite of his own lefty bat) playing the outfield against lefty starters while mixing into the infield more often against righties, allowing the Yankees to play matchups more effectively for both Verdugo and Torres, especially in the event that New York brass don’t want to have either Chisholm or Torres learn third base on the fly.
Of course, another factor in Chisholm’s value to the Yankees is the fact that he’s controlled through the end of the 2026 season. For an offense that figures to see Soto, Torres, Verdugo, J.D. Davis, and perhaps Anthony Rizzo all depart for free agency following the 2024 campaign, adding Chisholm to the lineup as a long-term building block alongside sluggers Judge and Giancarlo Stanton as well as youngsters Wells, Anthony Volpe, and Ben Rice offers the Yankees the ability to decide Chisholm’s long-term home on the diamond based on both his defensive performance and the needs of the roster surrounding him in an offseason where re-signing Soto figures to be the top priority. It’s possible to imagine Chisholm settling in as a fixture of the club’s mix in either the infield or outfield depending on both the club’s external additions this winter and the performance of up-and-coming youngsters in the club’s system like infielder Oswald Peraza and outfielder Jasson Dominguez, both of whom could vie for everyday roles in 2025.
As for the Marlins, they’ll receive a package of three prospects in return for the youngster who has been the club’s lone productive hitter this year ever since Luis Arraez was dealt to San Diego back in May. The closest to making an impact at the major league level of that group is Ramirez, a 22-year-old catcher who is already on the 40-man roster and reached the Triple-A level earlier this year. The youngster is just the #20 prospect in the Yankees system according to MLB Pipeline but is a far more robust third in the system according to Baseball America.
A bat-first catcher who slashed an impressive .290/.372/.570 in 58 games at the Double-A level this year prior to his promotion to the next level, Ramirez offers enticing raw power and a knack for making contact in the zone, though upper-level breaking balls have given him trouble and both Pipeline and BA suggest that he’ll need to improve his swing decisions a bit to reach his potential as a hitter. Scouts have plenty of questions about whether or not Ramirez will be able to stick behind the plate in the majors, though there’s optimism that he’ll have a future in the big leagues even if he ends up moving off catcher to a more offensively demanding position like first base.
Also heading to Miami in the return is Serna, a 22-year-old infielder in the midst of a solid season at the High-A level. The club’s #19 prospect per Pipeline and #11 prospect per BA, Serna has slashed a respectable .253/.341/.444 in 88 games with the Yankees’ affiliate in Hudson Valley while swiping 11 bags and slugging 13 home runs, although his body doesn’t project for much more power and he’s expected to slug at below average levels in the majors. Serna is also viewed as unlikely to stick at shortstop long-term, with BA noting that his fringey arm means he’s likely to end up at second base although he does have experience in the outfield and at the hot corner as well.
As for the latter Ramirez, he signed with the Yankees out of Venezuela back in 2022 on a $30,000 bonus (h/t Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com) and made his stateside debut earlier this year. In 49 games in complex ball this year, the 19-year-old has looked good with an excellent .348/.447/.513 slash line in 189 trips to the plate while splitting time between shortstop as well as second and third base. Ramirez is not ranked within the Yankees’ top-30 prospects by any major public-facing evaluators at the moment, although given his youth and big numbers in complex ball it wouldn’t be a shock to see him make some noise in that regard with Miami at some point in the future.
Craig Mish of SportsGrid first reported the Yankees and Marlins were in talks about a deal that’d send Chisholm to New York for three prospects. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic was first to say the deal was done. ESPN’s Alden González reported Agustin Ramirez was the headliner and Abrahan Ramirez’s inclusion. Christina De Nicola of MLB.com had Serna’s inclusion.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.