NEW YORK -- The Yankees were preparing to depart on their recent West Coast trip when Jazz Chisholm Jr. appeared in the doorway of Aaron Boone’s office, seeking clarity about the focus of his scheduled Minor League rehab assignment. The manager had been mulling this conversation for a few days.
Chisholm began this season as the Yankees’ Opening Day second baseman, and he considered that to be a more natural fit, believing his days at third base were done. But when Boone brought up the idea of a return to the hot corner, Chisholm replied: “I just want to win. I want a ring.”
So there he was on Tuesday, pounding his glove once more at third base, activated from the injured list after missing all of May with a right oblique strain. He celebrated the occasion with a Eurostep, dancing across home plate after slugging a go-ahead home run that helped power the Yankees to a 3-2 victory over the Guardians at Yankee Stadium.
“Every day, sitting on that bench, you’re thinking about coming back and just starting strong,” Chisholm said. “I didn’t have the best start, so starting the season over … you don’t focus on what happened before. So yeah, this is how I wanted to start my comeback.”
Anthony Volpe then homered, going back-to-back with Chisholm in support of yet another strong Carlos Rodón outing. Rodón held Cleveland to one run over seven innings as the burly left-hander improved to 7-0 with a 1.27 ERA (8 ER, 56 2/3 IP) across his last nine starts.
“These guys make it easy. Offensively, we’re so good,” Rodón said. “I just know I have to get outs and eventually we’re going to score more than a few runs.”
Devin Williams returned to the closer’s role after Luke Weaver was placed on the injured list earlier Tuesday. Williams allowed a Carlos Santana double and Daniel Schneemann’s pinch-hit RBI single before closing out his sixth save.
“I feel confident,” Williams said. “Santana put up a really good at-bat there and they found some holes, but I felt good overall.”
There were plenty of contributors, but Chisholm sizzled. He made a sharp defensive play early, showing off his strong arm to rob Angel Martínez of a hit in the third inning, lauding first baseman Paul Goldschmidt for a nifty scoop on the back end.
“The throw really makes it a tough play -- after you catch the ball, you’ve got to turn around and fire a strike over to first base,” Chisholm said. “Shout-out to Goldy over there, picking me up. I cut it a little bit.”
The 27-year-old Chisholm delivered the game’s pivotal swing in the seventh. Facing Tanner Bibee, Chisholm jumped on a first-pitch four-seamer and sent a Statcast-calculated 358-foot drive into the right-field seats, Chisholm’s eighth homer of the season and first since April 21 at Cleveland.
Chisholm said he recently heard a story about Reggie Jackson, quoting Mr. October on how he once knew a wall-scraper would leave the yard: “Well, I hit 563 of them.”
“My story is that I’ve hit 1,000 home runs in my dreams, so I had to know that one was going,” Chisholm said.
Chisholm hadn’t played third base professionally until last July, and Boone’s reasoning for having him return partially centered upon the manager’s view of Chisholm as “a very dynamic player.”
Volpe offered this scouting report on his third baseman turned second baseman and back again: “He’s just so smooth and has such a great arm. You can play him wherever you want.”
Boone acknowledges Chisholm wasn’t perfect at third -- seven errors in 45 starts at third (minus-2 defensive runs saved). There were growing pains, mostly related to positioning, like learning where to be for cut-offs. But the good far outweighed the bad.
“I really thought I was done at third base, I’m not going to lie to you,” Chisholm said. “I thought I left my career over there with a good stamp, but I guess we’re back again. We’ve got to shine again. We can’t let that reputation go down.”
The choice also accommodates DJ LeMahieu, who enjoyed a four-hit game on Sunday in Los Angeles, his first since 2021.
LeMahieu drove in the Yanks’ first run with a fifth-inning single, but the second baseman was unable to make a defensive play to knock down David Fry’s hard seventh-inning grounder. That snapped a 20-inning scoreless streak for Rodón, who struck out eight with one walk.
Volpe’s seventh homer of the year wound up being the deciding blow in the contest, and as he rounded the bases, no one looked more excited than Chisholm: slamming the padded dugout railing with both hands, smiling brightly.
That’s a perfect example of the “energy” Volpe says has been delivered each night to the group, one which Chisholm calls “my favorite organization I’ve ever been a part of.” And as Chisholm said, it’s finally time to shine again.
“It’s just great to have him back,” Volpe said. “That’s just the teammate he is and the person he is. He just wants to be a Yankee and help us win. I think that says all you need to know about him.”