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MLB players think Jazz Chisholm Jr. is the most overrated player in the game. He does not care.
The Athletic released the results of its MLB Player Poll 2024 on June 10, in which the outlet asked over 100 active players a variety of questions, including who they think is the most overrated player in baseball. Chisholm received more than 20% of the vote to take the ignominious honor.
Chisholm is hitting .296 with 7 home runs since the Yankees traded for him shortly before the deadline. Deesha Thosar of Fox Sports asked Chisholm about the poll amid his current hot streak.
“What was it, like 11 players? I definitely knew who they were talking to, too. It wasn’t hard to find out who the players were,” Chisolm said in Thosar’s August 12 story. “I didn’t really care. Who cares what somebody else has to say about me? If he really voted that I’m overrated, that means you got something in your psyche, brother.”
The Athletic revealed that 59 players answered the “most overrated” question with Chisholm receiving 12 total votes.
He said he was not about to start naming players that he, himself, thinks are overrated.
“Like me, I’m not going out and voting who’s an overrated player because I don’t even know who an overrated player is,” he said. “I don’t look at people that hard. I only look at people who are good, I’m sorry. So you call me overrated, I gotta be good. That’s how I look at it.”
Jazz Chisholm Jr. Has Lengthened the Yankees Lineup
The Yankees stumbled into the trade deadline with issues to address throughout their roster. One major problem was that beyond Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, the lineup wasn’t exactly stoking fear in opposing pitchers.
While Austin Wells’ and Alex Verdugo’s hot streaks over the past few weeks have helped, Chisholm has provided the exact spark the team needed. In 13 games with the Yankees, Chisholm has a 1.049 OPS and half his hits have gone for extra bases. Compare that to the season-long production the Yankees are getting from third base (.237 BA, .659 OPS).
Since acquiring Chisolm, the Yankees have the second best wRC+ in baseball (142), third highest team batting average (.283), and second highest slugging percentage (.506). In the six weeks before the trade, the Yankees ranked no better than ninth in any of those categories and ranked 21st in batting average (.239).
Even with Soto and Judge, the Yankees were putting up average power numbers. Their 47 team home runs in that time were only 10th best in the game, with their two big sluggers accounting for 21 of them.
The Captain Gave Chisholm Some Advice
As the Yankees captain, American League home run king and AL MVP favorite, Judge holds more sway than anyone else in the New York clubhouse. When Chisholm joined the team, he took it upon himself to encourage his newest teammate.
Mainly, he didn’t want Chisholm to change his style under the bright lights.
“That’s the toughest thing here is, people sometimes come here, anytime guys get traded to any team, they kind of want to change,” Judge told Fox Sports. “I’m trying to make them comfortable, I’m trying to read people. We got a room with so many established guys, so many veterans, MVPs, Cy Youngs. In this room, you just need to come in here and be yourself.”
That’s not empty talk. The Yankees need Chisholm to be exactly the player they traded for. Apart from providing production at third base, he has 26 stolen bases. Anthony Volpe has 20 for the Yankees, but no other player has more than six.
“We traded for him for a reason. He brings good energy. He’s a great ballplayer,” Judge said, according to Fox. “He’s athletic, he can hit, he can field. ‘We need you to come in here and be yourself,’ that’s what I told him. Be yourself. Obviously we’re the Yankees, so things are different, and I think he respects that, which I saw from the beginning. But I didn’t want him to come in here and just kind of, not be himself. So I just wanted him to hear it from me: ‘I just want you to be you. You’re a big part of this.'”
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