Success can often be a good driver behind further ambition. Just ask New York Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr.
2025 was a career season for Chisholm. He made his second All-Star Game, won his first Silver Slugger Award, and totaled 4.2 WAR (per Baseball Reference’s version of the metric) while slashing .242/.332/.481 (125 OPS+) with 15 2B, 31 HR, 80 RBI, and 31 SB.
Chishom has never lacked confidence in his career, but as the 28-year-old heads into his seventh season in the big leagues, he has set some lofty, sky-high individual goals for 2026: winning the AL MVP, a Silver Slugger, a Gold Glove, and joining the 50-50 Club (home runs and stolen bases).
“Ask Cap (Aaron Judge),” Chisholm told The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner. “Real life. Let’s just be realistic. I got all the tools for it. I have the speed, the power, the plate discipline, the eye at the plate, defense. I got everything to accumulate a 10-WAR season.”
Chisholm’s Future in New York Rides on This Season
With free agency looming after the season, how Jazz Chisholm performs on the field will play a pivotal role in whether the club decides to retain him long-term. Given the organization’s track record, it’s unlikely the two sides will meet to discuss a potential contract extension until after the season concludes.
Chisholm has embraced New York, however, since his arrival in a July 2024 trade with the Miami Marlins (sending catcher/first baseman Agustín Ramírez, infielder Jared Serna, and infielder Abrahan Ramirez the other way). Offensively, his OPS+ has risen more than 20 points with the Yankees, while his walk rate has increased, and the strikeouts have dropped. Chisholm isn’t a perfect player (leading AL second baseman in errors), but he’s been consistent since settling in defensively on the right side of the infield.
Chisholm could be setting himself up for a significant contract in free agency, but even if he has another career season, there are no guarantees he remains with the Yankees (the franchise he grew up in the Bahamas rooting for). New York could be facing questions across the middle infield after the season, with Chisholm looking at free agency, Anthony Volpe needing to produce once he returns, José Caballero needing to produce to keep his job, and with top prospect George Lombard Jr. looming in the minor leagues.
50-50 is a Real Lofty Goal
In 2025, Chisholm became just the third Yankees player in the 30-30 Club, joining Bobby Bonds (1975) and Alfonso Soriano (2002 & 2003). As Kirshner notes, Chisholm did so while playing in “only 130 games and had a 39-game stretch in which he attempted only two stolen bases because he was nursing a leg injury that he played through”.
While stepping up those efforts seems realistic, especially for a player like Chisholm, only a few have done so in league history.
Just six players have achieved 40-40 seasons: Jose Canseco (1988), Barry Bonds (1996), Alex Rodríguez (1998), Alfonso Soriano (2006), Ronald Acuña Jr. (2023), and Shohei Ohtani (2024).
Ohtani, of course, was the only one to reach the 50-50 (54 HR, 59 SB) mark Chisholm hopes to top.
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