LOS ANGELES – The Marlins’ Jazz Chisholm has been in a funk this season. Jazz is not having the season that he was hoping for.
To go with his .244/.297/.431 slashline, with both his batting average and on-base percentage being the lowest since his rookie season, he’s dealt with various injuries that have kept him off the field, including a turf toe that kept him out for about six weeks, an oblique strain that kept him out for almost a month, and most recently missed a few games due to a sore right hamstring.
He’s only played in 68 of the possible 121 games.
In Jazz’s four years in the league, he’s only played in 273 games and has already switched positions from shortstop to second base to centerfield.
Chisholm broke out in 2022, earning his first career All-Star appearance, being named the starting second baseman for the National League side, and had a career high .860 OPS. However, he was limited to only 60 games in 2022 due to a back injury.
Many believed that injury set his career back a couple of years because he was blossoming into one of baseball’s electrifying stars. Now it seems that he’s still struggling to regain that consistent five-tool magic that had the 25-year-old Bahamian on a trajectory to superstardom.
Injuries, Position Changes, Instability
The Marlins traded for American League batting champion Luis Arraez (Minnesota Twins) during the 2022-2023 offseason, a fellow second baseman. The plan was to put Arraez at second, and with Chisholm’s electric speed, make him the captain of the outfield and have him play centerfield. The hope was that the injury-riddled season that affected him last year would be a thing of the past and moving to the outfield would help prevent further injuries. Unfortunately, fate had other plans for 2023.
Even with all those injuries to his lower extremities, Jazz still has had a decent season running the bases, having stolen 17 bases on 20 attempts. Also, Marlins manager Skip Schumaker wasn’t wrong about Chisholm having Gold Glove potential in centerfield. Jazz has only committed two errors and has four outfield assists. Not bad for a guy who just started playing the position professionally about five months ago.
Marlins Not Getting Enough From Jazz To Stay In Playoff Hunt?
After sitting pretty comfortably in second place in their division, and consistently in the first or second Wild Card spots for much of the season, the Marlins are now on the outside looking in, 2.5 games back of the last slot.
Looking ahead, between now and September 17, Miami has a murderer’s row of series against strong playoff hopefuls like the Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Braves.
At the beginning of the season, not many people were expecting Miami to get off to such a blazing start. Them being 66-65, just a game above .500, is what seemed more realistic.
The bummer is that if Chisholm didn’t miss as many as the 50+ games he’s missed, Miami would definitely have more wins and a bit more breathing room in the standings since his leadership, electrifying play and clubhouse energy has been absent for almost half the year.
While they may be down, the season is certainly not over for Chisholm and the Marlins. If they can play the way they once were, in addition to Jazz being in the lineup more consistently, then they can still make it to the postseason for the first time since 2003, excluding the 2020 COVID year.
They do need Jazz to step it up and become the impactful force he’s capable of being.
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