Make New York Post a Preferred Source In their biggest game of the season, the Yankees put Jazz Chisholm Jr. on the bench.
And if that was going to be how Chisholm’s tenure with the team ended — replaced by Anthony Volpe at second base for Game 3 of the ALDS on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium — it sure was telling.
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“Just felt like it,” manager Aaron Boone said in his office before Game 3. “I felt like I wanted to go with [Volpe] today.”
The impetus for the move was Chisholm’s poor Game 2, when he committed a throwing error in the first inning and nearly had another before George Lombard Jr. saved him, not to mention entering Wednesday 0-for-6 with a walk in the ALDS, though he had plenty of company in that regard.
Boone was not interested in fully explaining his decision or indicating whether the move had more to do with defense or offense, other than saying he thought about it on the plane ride home late Monday night and settled on a different lineup that had Volpe for Chisholm and José Caballero for Ryan McMahon.
The manager said he did not have a conversation with Chisholm about taking him out of the lineup — which he also did for Game 1 of the wild-card series against Red Sox lefty Payton Tolle, but this one came against Rays right-hander Nick Martinez.
“But we’re ready to go,” Boone said. “As I talked to these guys before the series, it’s going to take all of us. … He’s ready to go.”
Chisholm, a pending free agent who did not take the field for any pregame work, has had a maddeningly inconsistent run with the Yankees, one that is unlikely to continue beyond this year. He may have more talent and tools than almost any other player on the roster, most notably his speed, athleticism and power, but the Yankees have not been able to get that out of him regularly enough, especially this year.
The 28-year-old hit only .231 with a .711 OPS, 19 home runs and 41 steals in 137 games during the regular season. He was finally starting to get hot late in August into September before spraining his right thumb and going on the injured list, which opened the door for Volpe to be called up from Triple-A, where the former shortstop had been transitioning to second base (and even some third base mixed in).
Volpe may well have a chance to take over at second base next season, but he also got the call Wednesday with the season on the line.
“Just [hoping for a] spark again,” Boone said. “I think Anthony has played well since coming up at the end of the year. Both sides of the ball, he’s done a good job. So, yeah, felt like it made some sense to get him in there tonight, a few more righties at least in the lineup tonight, give a little more balance.”
Chisholm’s most egregious defensive miscue in Game 2 came when he tried to turn a double play on Junior Caminero in the bottom of the first, which was going to be tough to do even if he made a perfect throw. Instead, he made an off-balance, ill-advised throw to first and it went skipping by Luis García Jr., allowing a run to score and Caminero to take second.
After the game, Chisholm said he would still make the throw if he could do it all over again, though Boone tried to downplay that as a confident player just answering a question.
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“I don’t think he should have thrown the ball,” Boone said Wednesday. “But when you throw the ball, you can always play catch at a high level, just because it’s late. More of an issue with making the throw and then being erratic. But sometimes when you ask athletes questions and you get a lot of people around, they answer a certain way. It’s not so much literal all the time.
“Jazz is pretty much, when he’s pressed like that, going to always answer it in the moment, ‘I’d never not do anything.’ Let’s not over-literalize everything a guy answers.”
