Jazz in April

Something positive lurks under an ugly surface level batting line

When the Yankees acquired Jazz Chisholm, Jr. last season, it was a literal and metaphorical shot in the arm. He’s a big personality and he produced well on the field—even if that dropped off in the playoffs. This season, Jazz has shown more life than most on the team with seven homers, tied for second most with Trent Grisham, both one behind Aaron Judge. He’s also added a team-high six steals.

Despite an ugly slash line of .178/.300/.406, his .316 wOBA and 106 wRC+ are in line with his career norms. Behind that is a career high walk rate—over 12%—and a near-career high ISO (.228). His strikeout rate is also a career high (30%), but there’s more good than bad here, even with a ghastly BABIP of .186. Given that, the walks, and the power, it’s likely that Chisholm’s batting line looks good sooner rather than later. Before we get to that, let’s take a look at why that BABIP is so low.

The “culprit” is pretty easy to identify. Thus far, Jazz is rocking a career low ground ball rate. The corollary to that is a career high percentage of balls in the air, right? And that’s just what Jazz has done. Fewer grounders plus more balls in the air equals a lower BABIP. Sometimes, weak contact can aid in this and there’s a bit of evidence that might point such a way. The percentage of balls Chisholm has gotten under is way up, a career high 34.8%. In turn, his pop up rate is at 12.1%, something he hasn’t even sniffed since his debut season (16.1) with marks between 4.3-6.3 from 2021-24. This is also reflected in his launch angle, which at 18.3 is his highest ever. Still, weak contact doesn’t seem to e at ‘fault” here given that Jazz also has a career high barrel percentage. There also appears to be some intentionality behind Jazz’s 2025 contact numbers.

Let’s start with what he’s not swinging at before we get into what’s happening when he makes contact. Two things stand out here: a career low chase rate and a second lowest in-zone swing percentage. Combined, these two bits suggest that Jazz is both staying in the zone and being selective in the zone. He has a plan. he wants to do something with the ball when it meets his bat. And so far, he has.

First, we have the aforementioned barrel rate. Second, we have the fact that Chisholm is pulling the ball in the air at his second highest clip ever. All of that said, a strategy has emerged. Jazz wants to hit the ball hard, put it in the air and to the pull side. That’s what he’s been doing so far and if he keeps doing it, that batting line will improve.